


Familiar Strangers

by Kr1411, Multi_FandomWeirdo16



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry needs a hug, Barry torture, Different earth oliver, Gen, Kidnapped!Barry, PTSD, Trigger Warnings, dark oliver, if he lets you give him one, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2018-12-14 15:56:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 26
Words: 32,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11786490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kr1411/pseuds/Kr1411, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multi_FandomWeirdo16/pseuds/Multi_FandomWeirdo16
Summary: When Barry gets kidnapped by an Oliver from a different Earth, how will the others save him?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I'm posting yet another story when I should be updating like my other many stories that I've been lacking on. I'll get those up soon, I swear. Please enjoy c:
> 
> -Kr

In the multiverse, people are always different than how you know them.

For instance, Earth 5 Barry Allen was a spoiled pig who didn't care about anyone's well being of his own, whereas Earth 21 Barry Allen was a criminal mastermind, most wanted on his earth.

Upon discovering that the theory of the multiverse was true, Barry made it his mission to discover as many earths as he could, with the help of Cisco.

There were some Earths Barry was glad he didn't live on. For example, Earth 63 was a war zone, and Earth 29 practically didn't exist anymore due to the apocalypse.

But when there was bad Earths, there were good Earths to balance those out. Earth 57 was pretty much just fluff and rainbows, and Earth 109 was the basically the science Earth of the multiverse. Barry stayed on that Earth for quite a while.

When Barry's brother-like friend, and secret crush Oliver Queen found out about his recent Earth-hopping, he was not amused.

"What if you land on a rouge earth, and someone gets you, and kills you? How would any of us know?" Oliver shouted at him. Barry winced. He learned it was best not to interrupt Oliver when he was ranting.

"Barry, you don't realize how dangerous this is. You could die, and no one would know until too late. Central City needs you, Team Flash needs you, I need you, Barry," Oliver continued, making Barry's heart flutter.

At this point Barry decided to interrupt.

"It's not like I'm going alone, Oliver. Cisco has my back, he wouldn't let anything happen to us, he'd get us out," he reassured Oliver, with no progress.

"What if he's not there to save you, Barry?" Oliver asked.   
  
Before Barry could answer, he got a call from Cisco.

Really, all Cisco and Barry ever talked about was different Earths they could go to, so he probably didn't need to answer. Barry went ahead and answered anyway, mainly to get out of Oliver's lecture, but also in case it was something serious.

"It's Cisco, I should probably..." Barry told Oliver as he guestured to the phone.

Oliver nodded in understanding, crossing his arms as he waited.

Turning his back to the older man, Barry hit accept and put his phone to his ear.

"What's up, Cisco?" He asked.

"Dude, I just found another Earth I think we should check out," Cisco said with enthusiasm.

"Alright, Where?" Barry asked, trying to make it sound like it was a Metahuman attack, and not like it was exactly what Oliver told him not to do a less than minute ago.

"Earth 49. Seems somewhat normal compared to the other Earths we've been to," Cisco told him.

"Alright, I'll be there in a flash," Barry chuckled, hanging up.

Turning back to Oliver, who was shaking his head at the pun, Barry jabbed his thumb at the door.

"It's... a metahuman. I should probably go..." Barry said. Oliver could see right through the lie, but before he could say anything, Barry was gone.

When he arrived at STAR Labs, Cisco was all ready to go.

"I sent Caitlin out on a food run, so it's just us here now," Cisco said. Barry nodded.

"Alright," he said.

Putting his goggles on, Cisco raised his hand, and Barry put his arm around him.

"Here we go," Cisco said, before opening a portal to Earth 49.

* * *

 

Arriving on the Earth, one look and you could tell it was a nice place to be. There weren't too many buildings, clear sky's as far as the eye could see, and where there wasn't a building, there was perfect green grass.

Looking around for a little bit, Cisco and Barry discovered cars were frowned apon, and the fashion there was a little... iffy.

Everyone in the little town the duo found themselves in seemed to know each other, and and there was no hate among the town.

Well, almost no hate.

There was a guy who disagreed with the friendlieness everyone displayed. No one knew his name, or what he looked like. They called him Vigilante. But not in the good way.

Vigilante had a record of various things, from petty thefts to murder cases. The cops have tried many different strategies to catch him, and none have worked, Vigilante outsmarted them every time.

"I don't know, man, I kinda want to catch this Vigilante guy," Cisco said after Barry suggested they go back.

"We can always come back, but we don't know how much time has passed," Barry argued. "Seconds, minutes, days."

Cisco sighed. "You make a valid argument, my friend."

Little did they know, someone was watching them.

As they were walking through the field, Vigilante stayed five feet behind them, somehow he managed to not get noticed.

As they opened the breach, he couldn't help but gape. But, he shook it off quickly, because he wanted to see where these two intruders came from.

So, that's why right before the breach closed, he jumped through it.

"That place was nice," Cisco said to Barry as they walked up to the cortex.

"I wouldn't mind living there if I manage to chase Iris off," Barry joked.

But their moods were quickly dimmed when they saw an angry Caitlin standing in the cortex with her arms crossed.

"You guys did it again, didn't you?" She asked, sternly.

"Now, Caitlin, before you tear our heads off," Cisco started, but Caitlin ignored it, giving them the same lecture Oliver gave Barry before they left.

"Do you know how dangerous that Earth could've been? They could've kidnapped you, tortured you, killed you, and none of us would know!" She screamed.

"Do you have anything else to add?" Caitlin shouted behind them.

Barry and Cisco turned around to see Oliver Queen in the hallway.

"Oliver, what are you doing here?" Barry asked.

"Well, you..." Oliver said with a skeptical look on his face, causing the two to look at each other "I heard you were... Earth jumping, again, but looks like she covered everything I was going to say," he finished, before hurrying out.

Barry and Cisco looked at Caitlin, who was giving them a stern look, before Barry raced out to catch up with Oliver.

"Hey, Oliver, you ok man? You seem kinda... off," Barry said.

Oliver looked at Barry, like he was trying to read him, which confused Barry even more.

"Oliver, what are you-" Barry asked, before he was cut off by Oliver's lips on his own. And that was the last thing he remembered before he blacked out.

"For a superhero, you're really not that bright, kid," Earth 49 Oliver, or Vigilante said, easing on Barry's neck as the speedster fell limp into his arms.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short! I'Lloyd try to make my next chapter a little longer. Also, the other author who I'm writing this with is amazing, check out her stories!

The world was dark and fuzzy, Barry couldn't feel anything, or see anything.  
He was confused, where was he? What happened? Barry tried to remember what happened last, was he attacked by a meta? No.. he... he was at star labs, he and Cisco just came back from a different earth and Caitlin got mad and then... Oliver was there. Wait... what was Oliver doing there? He... he kissed him! Wait, was that a good or bad thing? Wait, why was it still dark?

Barry peaked his eyes open, at first he was expecting the blinding light of the cortex of star labs but instead he was greeted by suspicious dimness.

He let out a groan as he went to use his arms to sit up but found they were shackled above his head.  
"What the...?" He mumbled as he pulled on the restraints, finding they were metal chains. He immediately tried to phase through them but to no luck, he was trapped.

What was going on? Where was Oliver? How did he get here?

Barry looked around and found himself trapped in a glass cage kind of like back on earth two with Zoom, immediately his anger and panic surged forwards, was Zoom back?! How?!  
He took a deep breath and had to focus, he liked around once more, he couldn'the see any sort of entrance or exit, he couldn't see but a few feet in front of himself.

He jumped slightly when he heard someone speak.

"Took you long enough. Here I thought you'd never wake up." Barry could almost /hear/ the smirk in his voice.  
Barry recognized the voice and looked up to see Oliver standing there. He was in normal clothes, not his arrow costume.

He frowned when he noticed something was off.

"Oliver... w-what are you doing? What is this?" He asked as he tugged on his restraints. "If this is some weird way to teach me to cover my surroundings then yeah, message understood. Can you just let me go?" He asked trying to joke, he felt extremely uncomfortable about all of this.

The laugh Oliver gave made Barry's skin crawl. "Let you go? Hehe... funny." He muttered as he paced in front of him. He pressed what he guessed was a code thingy.

"You see, a friend of mine came to this earth before, set up this little area and came back, it was his escape earth. Now, normally I wouldn't bother telling you this but I am telling you for two reasons, one, he's dead, so his information is no use to you, and also, to tell you no one else is gonna find you here." He spoke as he walked in as the glass slid up.

Barry felt realization melt into his brain.  
"You... you're from that other earth..." He mumbled as he felt only a little bit of relief at the fact that this wasn't his Oliver doing this to him.

"And sorry for the cuffs, couldn't take the chance that you were one of those super-powered freaks. Borrowed them from your nerd friends little gadget room." He smirked darkly as he continued to walk towards Barry who got to his feet, though the cuffed hands above his head limited his movement.

"What do you want?" Barry asked, trying to glare but his fear was stopping him from sounding as sure as he wanted to. Oliver on this earth was a powerful man, he saw the torture and the pain he could inflict although he wasn'the doing that anymore he was taking a less forceful approach. 

But it was clear that, that wasn't the case with this Oliver.

The dark Oliver laughed again before grabbing Barry by the neck, lifting him and slamming him against the wall, cutting off his air.

He didn't speak as he listened to Barry choke and gasp and felt him writhe in his hand before speaking.  
"What do I want?" He whispered huskily as he tightened his grip. Barry let out a gagging sound before Oliver continued "I wanna have a little /fun/."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys on all the comments! 
> 
> Here's the next chapter, sorry it's short, I'll try to make my chapters longer  
> -kr

Barry woke up about two hours later. Or was it hours? Maybe it was days. Or months even! 

Why was his throat sore? Oliver choked him. No. Not Oliver. Not his Oliver.

Did STAR Labs even know he was missing? Surely they were looking for him. Did this Oliver take anyone else from there?

Was everyone safe? What if he killed one of his friends? 

Barry's thoughts were interrupted by loud footsteps. 

Oliver's back, he thought to himself in dismal.

"About time you woke up," Oliver told him in a dark voice. 

"My team will find me you know," Barry told him confidentially. "They're probably looking for me right now."

Oliver scoffed. "I doubt that. See, I was just at that place, STAR Labs, was it? And made sure they didn't know where you were. Right now, they think your with my döppleganger. It was a little hard, technology on this earth is a little... trippy, but I had time. No one was there, and the security camera's somehow broke," Oliver smirked. Then he walked up to Barry.

"Don't you ever think that you're getting out of here again," he threatened. He then kicked Barry in the ribs, causing the younger man to groan. 

"Because like it or not," He continued, "you're mine now, and I can do with you as I want," he finished, kicking Barry again. 

"Go... to... hell," Barry spat out, causing Oliver to grab him by the neck.

"What did you say to me?" He demanded, before noticing Barry didn't have a bruise where he was grabbed before. 

'That should be bruised by now,' he thought to himself.

Barry noticed Oliver looking for the bruise, so he took this moment to try to attack his captor, but failed. 

Miserably.

 

And Oliver was not amused by this.

He grabbed Barry by the arm, and twisted it so it was pinned to his back. 

“Try something like that, and the punishment will be so much worse,” he whispered in Barry's ear.

————–

“Hey, Caitlin, are you able to get ahold of Barry?” Cisco asked a few hours after Barry and Oliver went off.

“I got an email from Oliver, saying that he and Barry went back to his place, so he might've -” Caitlin started, to be interrupted by Cisco.

“He left his phone here,” Cisco yelled to her.

“Damn it, Barry,” Caitlin mumbled.

“Speaking of Oliver, by the way, did he seem a little… off, to you?” Cisco asked.

Caitlin's nodded. “He was acting kinda strange.”

“It was probably a long night though, knowing him,” Cisco said, shrugging it off.

Caitlin nodded in agreement. “I'll just send him an email later, telling him to make sure Barry gets back soon.”

Cisco nodded, before going back to what he was working on. 

Little did either of them know, Barry wouldn't be going back anytime soon.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been three days… or at least, that’s what Barry thought. He tried to keep track of the days by how many times Oliver, or, Dark Oliver, fed him, which was never enough. He always felt weak and he knew if he couldn’t convince the imposter to feed him more, soon, he wouldn’t last much longer.

Barry was hot, too hot. His rapid cells often released the extra energy when he ran but since it couldn’t be let out kinetically, it was being let out in heat. Which meant Barry was uncomfortably hot and sweating like an eskimo in florida.

He was alone again. And as bad as that was, he would rather be alone than with that psychopath. It had only been three days and so far he had been choked out, poisoned, beat up, starved, sweating to the point of severe dehydration and incredibly sleep deprived.

He tried to tugg on his restraints which had been loosened, not around his wrist, he was already skinny and if they were loosened anymore he could slip out, but the chains had been lengthened so he had more freedom to roam in his little slice of hell.  
“Ah-ah-ah, Wouldn’t do that if I were you. I came here in a bit of a good mood but if you insist on trying to escape, I must warn you, I get pissed off pretty easily.” the same voice he dreaded to hear spoke as he rounded a corner.

Barry looked up at him from where he was leaning against the wall while sitting down, the lack of food meant lack of energy so he couldn’t really stand up, even if he wanted to.  
The cruel Oliver glared at him, though even through the evil glare, his sinister grin was more terrifying… It was never a good sign when he grinned.

“Hm.. You see, I’ve been thinking. I keep injuring you, and yet you seem fine. I know for a fact I broke four of your ribs yesterday and there should be a bruise around your neck. But you seem healed. So, I’ll cut you a deal because… well, color me curious. You tell me just exactly what you are, and I may spare your friend, what’s his name? Chesco? Cisco? Yeah, Cisco. I’ll spare him from our twisted little funhouse here. All you gotta tell me is what level of freak you are.” 

Barry barely had to think about his answer. The only reason he did think is because he had no way of telling if he could hold this Oliver to his word or not.

“Why should I tell you?” He snapped, though regretted it when he realized it took more energy than he had thought to say that so strongly and now he was slumped against the wall, breathing a little too heavily and it didn’t seem all too healthy. “I.. I have n-no way of tel… telling if you’ll hold up your end of the bargain or no-ot…” He panted. This Oliver seemed a little too intrested in the way Barry was acting, and it scared him because if this man tried anything, Barry would be way too weak to fend him off.

“Hm.. I see, you do have quite the valid point, but I guess you’ll just have to trust me. Because believe me when I say that I enjoy seeing others in pain. Happiness is a… well it’s an annoying substance that I can never seem to wash off my hands so pain is a lot more fun to watch. So, I promise you that if my focus isn’t on hurting you, it’ll be hurting others. So your choice /hero/.” He said ‘hero’ in a very mocking tone and if it weren’t for the worry, fear and exhaustion hitting him so strongly, he’d be a little insulted and pissed off.

Barry closed his eyes trying to catch his breath. ‘O-Okay… I-I’ll tell you but I n-need...need food…” He whined softly. He couldn’t see it himself. But his face was sickly pale and he had dark bags under his eyes, he was sweating profusely and shaking. He looked like a drug addict sobering up. It was a terrifying sight to see, well, not to this Oliver anyway. He quite enoyed the sight though he didn’t want his plaything to break just yet.

“And why should I give you anything? I already fed you seven hours ago. According to your world, humans can live a few weeks without food so what makes you so special and needy?” He taunted. Barry groaned as his body did not like the idea of no food because his cells were burning at a very dangerous pace.

“P-Please..” Was the only word he could manage. This Oliver scoffed. Rolling his eyes at the sight but not denying his interest. He left and brought back some food from ‘Big Belly Burger’. Appearantly his dopple ganger had some money stored up so he didn’t even have to pay for it. He brought the food back to his captive and watched him dig into it hungrily. It was a peculiar sight. Once Barry was done. He had at least enough energy to speak correctly and his face was less pale.  
“There, I fed you, now, you do as I asked.” He said simply.

Barry nodded shakily. “I… I have a really fast metabolism. And healing. I… my cells regenerate faster and so I need to eat much more than the average person, I need to sleep a little more, I need to get more exercise than them because if not I get too hot. If I don’t eat as much as I should then I could possibly die.” He explained. He made sure not to tell of his superspeed. This man obviously knew he was a hero but he didn’t seem to know his powers, best to keep it that way. He needed an ace up his sleeve. But man did he immediately regret telling the man anything because the look on his face was terrifying. He had an almost maniac grin on his face and a twisted darkness in his eyes.  
“Hm… oh /yes/. This is going to be so much fun…” He said more to himself than to Barry. Barry’s eyes widened as the glass door was slid open and the imposter blonde walked in before grabbing Barry by the hair and dragging him around. He began to beat him sensless, kicking and punching and choking. But, in the middle of holding Barry up with the chain of his cuffs wrapped around his neck and watching him struggle. The man seemed a little bored.

“Hm.. Since I know I won’t kill you as easily… what’s to say we shouldn’t… play a little rougher?” He asked with a smirk as he left the room. Only to return with a rolling cart. On it were several medical tools among other items that seemed much more scary now that knowing he would be the unlucky test subject of these devices.

Oliver… please help…

 

Meanwhile. Caitlin and Cisco were in the cortex of STAR labs when Joe walked in.  
“Hey Joe, what brings you here?” Cisco asked as he turned from talking to Caitlin to focusing on their speedsters foster father.

“I’m looking for Barry, he hasn’t shown up for work in five days and Captain Singh is getting this close to firing him.” He said pinching his fingers together but barely leaving space between them to show them how short Singh’s patience was growing.

“He hasn’t been back here, He left his phone here a couple days ago when he went to go visit Star City for a while.”

“Visit Star City or visit Oliver Queen?” Joe asked skeptically. He was Barry’s substitute father and he could tell when his kid was falling a little too hard. He had never aproved of Oliver because he was, not only a killer, but a playboy that had a long history of broken hearts and tears and he didn’t want Barry to fall into that line.

“Both.” Caitlin and Cisco said together.

“Well get ahold of him somehow because if Barry doesn’t come back to work soon, he’s not gonna have a job to come back to.” He warned as he left to call Singh, he would try holding Singh’s pink slip off but if Barry continued to avoid coming home just to spend time with some playboy douchebag then there was only so much he could do.

 

~

Barry let out another scream as he felt electricity coursing though his body. It wasn’t enough to knock him out, just enough to be as painful as possible.

“That’s it. Scream for me.” Dark Oliver smirked as he pressed the tasing device to the small of Barry’s back once again. Barry screamed even louder as he tried to not focus on the pain. By this point, Dark Oliver had suspended him in the air, using his cuffs and chains to hold his hands above his head, leaving him fully exposed and unable to protect himself.

The man set the taser down and moved to another device. His eyes scanning over to figure out which one would hurt most. See, this Oliver was also highly skilled in the means of torture. He knew what killed, what crippled, and what just hurt. And that’s what made it fun. Because although yes, he and this earth’s Oliver shared the same backstory, this earth’s oliver had never strayed from trying to do right, whereas the other Oliver gave in to the Darkness.

He had picked a long tub which he shoved down Barry’s throat, choking him by triggering his gag reflex but he could still breathe, well, he could until the man began to pour some sort of liquid down his throat which smelled strongly of gasoline. He coughed and sputtered but could do nothing else to stop the foul liquid from entering his body.

Eventually, he passed out due to stress, lack of energy, and pain. He wouldn’t last much longer if this continued. He only prayed that /someone/ would see something was wrong.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is somewhat short, I tried to make it longer, but I've been somewhat busy recently. 
> 
> Here we go ^^

Ever since Oliver discovered Barry's powers (or most of them, anyway), he's been showing no mercy.

About two (or was it three? Or one?) days ago, Oliver nailed Barry's feet to the floor. Through his feet.

The nails were still in his feet.

Some time after that, Oliver cut one of his fingers off, to see if it would grow back, which was still in the process of doing.

Oliver also decided to start playing mind games with Barry, to make him lose hope that anyone was coming for him.

“They're not coming for you, you know. If they were, they would’ve found you. They don't even care about you. Why else do they let you throw yourself in the face of death?” He would ask, many times in a day.

Not that Barry knew what a day was anymore.

He couldn't remember the date he was kidnapped, let alone the current date.

There were no windows near him, so Barry couldn't even tell if it were night or day.

Oliver was pleased with the fact that Barry had lost most of his hope. The kid stopped telling him he was going to get out, that his team was coming for him.

He did still fight back when Oliver attacked him, though. His pain tolerance sucked.

Oliver looked at Barry through the glass.

He's pitiful, he thought to himself.

Barry just sat there, half asleep, sitting on the ground with his elbows on his knees. Standing was painful for him nowadays, after all.

Oliver walked away, deciding to let the kid rest for a bit.

————

“Ok, it's been two weeks, and we haven't had any contact with Barry. Do you guys have any idea where he is?” Joe demanded.

Caitlin send Oliver an email about Barry a few days ago, and this was his reply:

\-----  
[Oliver Queen to Caitlin Snow]  
 _In response to Caitlin Snow  
Oliver, we understand Barry's still in Star City with you, but we seriously need him back. He left his phone at STAR Labs, we haven't been able to contact him_.

What do you mean Barry's in Starling with me? I haven't seen him in two weeks. And next time, please text me, even I know nobody uses email anymore.  
\-----

The last few days were spent trying to figure out where Barry might've gone. No one had any leads, nothing even remotely close to a clue.

They suggested he went Earth Hopping again, but Cisco knew he wouldn't have gone without him, therefore shutting down their only idea.

The team was falling apart, because no one could find Barry. And somehow, they knew they wouldn't be anytime soon.

—————

Oliver grunted in annoyance. They figured out Barry was missing.

 _No harm done,_ he thought _. If I can drive them apart and give them false clues, they'll eventually stop looking._

Oliver let out a small chuckle. It was a good plan, all things considered. He looked back at Barry.

It's not like they'll want him back anyway. Even if they do, he won't believe them.

Walking over to Barry, he picked up a scalpel and opened the glass.

“I've let you rest long enough. Let's see how far I can stick this under your ribs without you dying on me,” he said, before Barry let out a scream due to the newfound pain in his chest.


	6. Chapter 6

Barry was so close to losing hope. Hope in his team finding him, hope in surviving this nightmare, hope that this Oliver was ever going to just kill him already.

Barry was sick. Yeah he could heal fast and he could survive almost any injury but a number of his wounds were infected. The cut in his chest had become swollen and puffy and radiated in heat. The nails in his feet had began to rust, making Barry’s sickness be ten times worse. His feet were turning a very nasty shade of yellow and he couldn’t stand. Barry’s upset stomach had cause him to not be able to eat anything. Anything the other Oliver shoved down his throat, he threw it up. He was dying.

Oliver was getting extremely pissed off. He didn’t want his plaything to be gone just yet. So he knew he had to do something. He had two ideas.

He could kidnap the Caitlin girl, get her to fix him and kill her, or he could take Barry to this world’s hospital and once he was fixed he would take him back here. He didn’t like either one. If Barry stepped foot into a hospital, whoever was set up as his emergency contact would be called and Oliver would have a hell of a time trying to erase their footsteps. And if he kidnapped the Caitlin girl and killed her, they would be on their trail as well. He punched the wall and he could hear Barry’s weak, surprised yelp. Oh yes, he would enjoy taking his anger out on his little plaything. But he would have to figure out something soon.

~

Team Flash had gone to Star City to talk to Team Arrow. They may not have Barry but Oliver was the last one with Barry. Or at least, they thought he was. As far as they knew, there was no other Oliver on this earth. They finally got down there and met up with Felicity who was typing away on her computer like usual.

“Hey, Is Oliver here?” Caitlin asked. It was her, Cisco, and Joe who had came to Star City. Julian was still busy seeing as Barry wasn’t there to take half of the work.

“Oliver’s out on business. Being Mayor is kind of hard to do when you’re dressing up in leather and tying people up… I mean, like, fighting bad guys..” She corrected hating how she somehow always made things sound prerogative.

“Well we need to talk to him. Barry’s been missing for almost a month. We’ve gotten no leads, no clues. Nothing. Oliver was the last one we know Barry was with.” Joe said. He had never trusted Oliver and if this man had his son or knew where he was then so help him he would definitely empty his clip into that bastard.

Felicity frowned in accordance to this news. “Barry’s missing?” She asked worriedly. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll get Oliver to meet you guys back in Central and I will see what I can dig up here, security footage and what not.” She said as she pulled out her phone and sent a message to Oliver.

Cisco nodded and looked at Joe who, for the past three weeks, had shared an expression of both anger and sadness. They needed to find Barry. And soon.

~

Barry had grown tired and weak. When he heard the bang on the wall, he knew that his captor was pissed, and he would pay for it. He never meant to, but his body had become very skittish around Oliver and he flinched whenever the glass door opened.

He watched as Oliver entered his cage and Barry tried to scoot as far away from him as he could. He was terrified of him. Though that didn’t stop him from fighting back when he could.  
He didn’t know it, but he looked dead. His skin was pasty and pale, he had a thin sheet of sweat covering his skin and his eyes had dark circles around them. He constantly shook and he was so weak that Oliver had taken the cuffs off of him. 

“You don’t look happy to see me? And here I was, coming to get you some help.” Oliver feigned an appalled look. Barry glared at him and tried to speak before breaking out into a coughing fit. A bit of blood was projected into Barry’s hands as he covered his mouth.

Oliver smirked at the damage done to his captive. But he still needed it fixed. He had decided against taking his captive to the hospital, and bringing the girl here would only cause trouble. So he would fix him up himself. He had enough medical training to keep Barry alive. Plus, his earth had this wonderful little pill that accelerated healing. And if the pill would work on Barry, that plus his natural power to heal, he would be fine in a day or two and then he could go back to the wonderful game of cat and torture the mouse.

He walked over to Barry who held his hands up in front of him to protect himself, which of course did nothing. He grabbed Barry by the neck and watched as he struggled to breathe, once his mouth was open, he took that ‘small’ pill, that was about the size of a hershey’s kiss and shoved it down the boy's throat. He made him choke it down before covering his mouth so he couldn’t throw it up. Once he was sure the pill was down and would stay down, he released him and watched him slump to the floor. He then grabbed at his feet but Barry jerked them away, the rust infection had made them extremely sensitive and hurt at the slightest touch. Barry cried out when Oliver grabbed one foot with unnecessary strength and ripped the nail out. Barry screamed and the pain alone was enough to bring Barry to the brink of unconsciousness. Oliver yanked the other nail from his other foot and watched as Barry let out a weak grunt before his eyes closed and he was floating in blissful unconsciousness.


	7. Chapter 7

Barry didn’t understand. Not too long ago, he wanted to die. He was ready to let go. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew nobody was going to come for him. This Oliver was right. They didn’t care. He felt like shit mentally and physically. He gave up. He was done.

So why did he suddenly feel somewhat… normal again?

“I see you’re feeling better,” Oliver said, causing Barry to flinch. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t even hear Oliver come in.

“What.. did you… give me?” Barry choked out. Oliver chuckled.

“See, you were dying. And I couldn’t let that happen now, could I? So, I came up with three options. I could’ve kidnapped your little doctor friend, but then your team could’ve tracked her to you. I also could’ve taken you to a hospital but I don’t need to explain why I didn’t. So, I gave you a speed healing pill that they invented on my earth. See, that combined with your healing could get you back to perfect health. Which is why,” Oliver said, taking the chains back out, “You need to be restrained again. Can’t risk you running off on me, can I?”

A tear rolled down Barry’s face. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could take this… this torture.

“Why don’t you just kill me?” Barry asked quietly. He almost wanted to say please, but he didn’t want to sound too desperate.

“Simple. I’d get bored,” Oliver shrugged, as he was chaining Barry back to the wall again.

Once Oliver finished and walked away, Barry started sobbing. All he wanted was for this nightmare to end, so he wouldn’t have to deal with this hell anymore. It made sense for Oliver to kill him, was he really just using him for his own entertainment?

—————

It’s been three days since the team went to Star City, and since then Oliver arrived at STAR Labs, also hellbent on finding Barry.

Felicity had no progress on security footage for a while, until she stumbled upon a strange video.

“Guys, I think I found something. Let me send it to you,” she informed them.

It was a short video, but it was useful. In it, it had Barry running out to Oliver, the, a few seconds later, Oliver kissing Barry, Barry falling limp in Oliver’s arms, then Oliver carrying Barry away. That was when the footage cut off.

After watching the video, everyone present looked at Oliver, who looked more confused than anyone combined.

“Oliver, would you like to explain yourself?” Joe demanded.

Oliver opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Everyone kept looking at him, and the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

About ten seconds later, Oliver mustered up the courage to speak.

“I- When this video was taken, I just officially ended things with Felicity, and i just got over her not to long ago,” he said. “Plus, I haven’t been to Central City since I last visited William-”

“Who’s William?” Caitlin cut in.

“It’s a…. long story. But, it’s been three months since then. You can give me a polygraph, I’m not lying. And, I don’t even like Barry in that way, so why would I kiss him?” Oliver defended.

But it wasn’t all true. Truth is, Oliver wasn’t sure how he felt about Barry. His smile could brighten a room, he was the most optimistic person Oliver knew, and he was just… special, to Oliver.

“Could it be Everyman?” Caitlin asked.

“No, Everyman died pretending to be Dr. Wells, or Eobard Thawne,” Cisco reminded her.

“Maybe it’s a doppelganger? From one of the Earths you visited?” Oliver asked.

“Maybe, but how would he have gotten here? My breeches close seconds after I jump in them,” Cisco argued.

“Maybe he has quick feet. Cisco, you have to consider everything that could happen,” Oliver said, obviously annoyed.

“Ok, but if he is a doppelganger, that makes things worse. First, any evidence we could find would just match up with Oliver, and Barry might not be on this earth anymore. And how many Earths did you two go to behind our backs?” Caitlin argued. Cisco rubbed the back of his head, and Joe raised his eyebrows. He didn’t know about the Earth-hopping they did.

“This just made everything so much more complicated,” Cisco mumbled.

—————

_Slash._

For a short while, Barry didn’t know how long, Oliver has been whipping him. The slashes started out slow, but they quickly sped up. Barry’s entire body was covered in blood at this point.

“Ok, I think that’s enough,” Oliver smirked, pulling the whip back. Barry groaned as he slouched against the wall.

“Hmm, what else should we do today?” Oliver asked Barry, even though it was more to himself.

Barry knew to keep quiet at all times. He only spoke when the topic of death came up now.

“I know! Let’s see how fast it takes for a third-degree burn to heal up,” Oliver said, taking out a flamethrower, similar to Heatwave’s.

Barry silently pleaded for him not to burn him, hoping that if he thought hard enough, Oliver would get the memo.

No such luck.

Barry’s screams mixed with the sound of fire filled the area. Oliver laughed. This was just too good.


	8. Chapter 8

Cold… he was cold… but why? He should be in pain, should be burning hot… Oliver burned him… So why was he cold? Oh That’s right. Oliver had him submerged in an ice cold container. Wait… He was in water. Oh yeah, can’t breathe.

At this, Barry began to panic, it was dark, he couldn’t breathe, he tried to move, he found that his current prison wasn’t that big, just barely large enough to fit him in. He tried to move upwards but a pair of tight hands on his shoulders kept him down. He thrashed about and struggled, hoping that if he could manage to spill enough water he could at least get his nose to air.

He was shaking with the cold, cubes of ice butted against him until finally the hands were off and Barry lunged out of the water and took in large, greedy gulps of air before coughing up the water that he had accidentally breathed in.

Oliver said nothing. He just smirked at his little plaything. He always enjoyed seeing him struggle, in pain. It was always so enticing. Once Barry had caught his breath, he tried to stand from the freezing cold tub but Oliver had moved and kept him sitting. “P-Please...I-It’s c-cold…” He whimpered pitifully.

"Awe, a little cold water never hurt anyone…” He cooed listening as Barry let out a pained whine as he pushed him under up to his neck, now the majority of his body was suffering the freezing touch of the water. “P-Ple… C-Cold… W-Won’ heal...i-if c-cold…” He murmured as the pure uncomfortableness and pain of the water clouded his brain. He heard a soft ‘tut’ from Oliver before he felt himself being dumped from the tub, water and all. Barry groaned and curled in on himself. His skin had taken on a soft blue tone and he was tempted to vibrate to heal up, but he had no clue what Oliver would do to him if he ever found out about that ability.

“Ya know. As much as I love seeing you in physical pain. I think it’ll be a little more fun to show you this.” He said as he grabbed a tablet he had stolen and typed away at it. “You see, this earth’s tech is a little tricky, but I’m a fast learner. See, after hacking into your friends security footage, I found a little message for you from this world’s Oliver. I thought you might wanna hear it.” He put the tablet in front of Barry who struggled between not wanting to see and wanting to. He chose not to watch, he wouldn’t believe this Oliver, but… what his Oliver said rang loudly in his ears.

_“I don’t like him like that.”_

No… No Ollie-Oliver didn’t...why? Was it just him o-or the fact that he was a boy?

'He doesn’t like you because...well, I mean look at you. You’re too thin, too tall, pathetic, a half ass hero and you kill anyone that gets close to you. Why would he ever like you?’ A voice said in his head.

Nononono! Get out! Not again! Not the voices again… he… he couldn’t do it… The voices always broke him. He couldn’t do it. He hadn’t realized it but he had began to cry. His heart felt empty. He felt empty… Oliver didn’t return his feelings… it was Iris all over again. No one would ever love him… why would they? Maybe the voice was right…

‘Of course I’m right.’ It said venomously. Barry’s body shook as he cried, he didn’t even fight when Oliver began to drag him back to his prison to be chained and tortured until Oliver got bored.

~

Things were bad. Really bad. Captain Singh had been told of Barry’s disappearance so he wouldn’t get fired, he had almost all of his cops looking for the missing CSI. Felicity had been checking and re-checking satellites, camera’s, street camera’s, security footage. Everything she could think of. Joe was helping CCPD look and Iris was getting the word out through her journalism. Team Flash and Team Arrow were hard at work. Cisco was trying to vibe him but all he could ever see was darkness or bad Oliver’s face.

Oliver was broken, his head wasn’t in the game. A man with his face has Barry and is doing who knows what to him. How could Oliver be okay? What if Barry had no clue that it wasn’t really him doing this to him? What if he thought the real Oliver was doing this? The thought made him sick to his stomach and he threw up whatever lunch he had eaten.

"Don’t worry Ollie… we’ll find him.” Thea had assured him time and time again. But soon, they were all losing hope. It had been almost a full two months. Barry could be on another earth and they had no way to save him.

“Maybe… Maybe it’s best if we-” Wally started but everyone’s glare told him to stop before he said something stupid. They couldn’t give up yet. Barry was still vibe-able so they knew he was alive. They would find him, he would be brought home and they would work on any collateral damage.

~

Barry had given up. He knew that he probably not much fun anymore, besides, he never struggled, he still flinched and screamed but what fun would this psychopath possibly be having if he couldn’t enjoy watching him struggle? Oliver had beaten him sensless. Barry had made the mistake of demanding this Oliver to kill him. Each time he was finished beating him am inch from death. Oliver had waited until he was healed again before doing it again. The pain was unbearable and he had passed out multiple times. He was getting to the end of his rope, and he knew that if he wasn’t saved soon… there may be no Barry to save anymore...


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sosososososo sorry for the late update. School started the other day, and life's been really getting on my last nerve. For the people that read my stories, it may be a bit longer for my updates, but still. 
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER LIKE SERIOUSLY!!! IF YOU ARE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM THE SLIGHTEST BIT SUICIDAL DO. NOT. READ.

__

Cisco was working harder than ever to find Barry. It’s been two and a half months since his disappearance, and the most luck they’ve had was the video of him being taken.

Yes, they had the CCPD working with them now, and Oliver somehow managed to get the SCPD to help too, but all the help in the world wasn’t well… helping.

The city’s gone into a frenzy since the Flash’s disappearance. Crime rates have gone up by at least 60 percent, and that’s with how hard Oliver’s been working on protecting both of the cities.

Each day that passed, everyone lost a little more hope that Barry would be found, let alone _alive_.

CIsco tried to vibe many times a day, never with success. For the past month he only vibed Oliver's face.

Today, though, he vibed something different.

Cisco was cleaning Barry´s suit (something he tended to do to cope) late that day, when suddenly, he got a vibe. And Oliver wasn't in this one.

In this vibe, Cisco saw Barry, unconscious, slumped on the floor, hands chained above him on the ground. He was covered, almost head to toe in blood and filth. His shirt was shredded to pieces, it was basically just rags glued to his torso at this point, which revealed his very skeleton-like body. His pants weren’t as bad, but they also showed his _very_ thin, skinny legs. He looked like he hasn’t slept in days. His hair looked even darker, probably from the amount of dirt in it, and about three times longer. He also had a dislocated shoulder. The sight alone would haunt his nightmares.

That was all he saw, though. About five seconds of Barry in his current state, but it helped. Alot.

Gasping, Cisco jumped back from the suit, tears springing into his eyes, ironically at the same time as Caitlin and Oliver were walking into the cortex.

“Cisco? What'd you vibe?” Caitlin asked, running over to him.

“I… I saw Barry,” He gasped.

\------

Oliver looked over his plaything. He's done just about everything he could to the man, and he´s given him enough breaks.

Oliver stared at the wall behind Barry. He could dissect him, find out more about his healing. He could snap his neck, just for the fun of it, but that would kill him, definitely.

Looking back at the kid, he noticed that his hair was much longer than it was when he first got him. Oliver then got an idea. How fast would his hair grow back?

Oliver grinned. It wasn't torture or anything, but his plaything probably liked his hair. Back when he had his dignity, of course.

Grabbing the razor he used to shave every morning with, Oliver walked over to Barry, making the setting on it the lowest, so Barry wouldn´t have hair at all.

“Wakey, wakey,” Oliver said, turning it on. Barry looked up at Oliver, no emotion displayed in his eyes, not even when he saw the razor.

“No response at all? Good to know you finally know who's boss,” Oliver said, before grabbing Barry by the hair and pulling him up.

Barry did nothing, he didn't even flinch.

Oliver started going to work, mumbling things like “Maybe this'll be a better look on you,” and, “Itĺl be grown back by the time anyone even acknowledges the fact you're missing.”

Nothing. Barry stayed completely silent.

Honestly, Barry didn’t even consider himself a human anymore. He was a shell of a person. His soul was taken away from him, as was his pride, dignity, and confidence. That was what spending as much time as he had in hell would do to a person.

Barry looked in horror as his hair fell to the ground, but tried not to show it. Clearly, Oliver - no, Master was running out of idea’s, but he knew his master would come up with something eventually. He was (unfortunately) smart like that.

**[SKIP IF YOU GET TRIGGERED BY SUICIDAL THOUGHTS. PLEASE]**

  
After that, he handed Barry a gun.

“I assume you know how to use a gun, right?” Oliver asked, not giving him a chance to answer before grabbing his hand. Positioning the gun into his mouth, he shook his head. “You can't kill yourself like this. You could miss.”

He took the hand with the gun again and put it under his chin. “This won't work either. You could miss, and blow your face off instead of die,” he said.

Then putting it against his temple, Oliver smiled. “This is the only way you can shoot yourself without fail,” he said.

Then, he let go of Barry’s hand. “This is your only chance to kill yourself,” he said. “There is one bullet in that gun. You can use it on me, or you can use it on yourself.”

Barry thought for a second. If he shot his master, he'd be stuck with the guilt of that for the rest of his life, but he'd be free. If e shot himself, he'd be free, but his master would still be out there, doing this to someone else.

But, Barry had nothing to lose. No one cared about him, he's been living in hell for god knows how long, and no one has even tried to come for him.

Barry put the gun to his temple and closed his eyes, pulling the trigger.

Nothing happened.

**[OK WE GOOD NOW]**

Barry opened his eyes to be greeted with a slap to the face.

“You really think I'd let you go that easy?” Oliver growled. Barry’s eyes widened.

Oliver started beating him, not stopping for what seemed like hours.

“Never, ever, try something like that again,” Oliver growled once he was finished.

Tears fell from Barry's eyes. He didn't know how much longer he could hold on, but he knew he couldn't last much longer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the part where "Oliver" gave Barry the gun? Yea, based on something that really happened. There was a girl who was sold into sex trafficking when she was an infant, and when she was seven, her master literally gave her a gun with blanks in it and taught her how to kill her self, but she didn't know it was loaded with blanks. It's awful, like seriously awful.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, this chapter could be considered triggering. Panic attacks/depressive thoughts will definitely be a big thing in this chapter, please don't read if it may trigger you.

It had been a total of four months, twelve days, eight hours, and 42 minutes since Barry had been taken by Oli-Master… by Master.

How did Barry know this? Easy, master told him.

By now, his hair had grown back to normal length, it was surprising to know that his hair grew back fast, just like the rest of him.

Oh yeah, Master had fun cutting and hacking away at his limbs and watching them reform, without flaw. At first it had been his finger, then his hair, but then Master moved onto other things, like his hands, then his feet, then individually, his toes, all that among… other… things.

Barry had not tried to kill himself since that last lesson. Even when Master gave him a gun that really did have a bullet in it. He learned from his mistakes, He knew that if he tried, He would fail and Master would not be happy.

 

Right now, Master had decided he was filthy and needed to be bathed. He braced himself once more and ice cold water was dumped on his naked, frail body. The blood and grime were slowly dripping off of him and onto the floor below.

 

“Hm. Pathetic.” Oliver said in distaste as he watched Barry. Barry’s movements had become very… frail? For lack of better words. He flinched every now and then, so he wasn’t completely dead inside, but he never spoke. Oliver had been sure to beat that out of him. He also never tried to defend himself anymore. But he had also grown sensitive to light due to keeping him in such a dark room. It was fun to watch him flinch whenever he shined a flashlight that may have been a tad bit too bright.

 

But he was growing bored, and that was not good news for Barry.

“Here you are, a grown man, and you can’t even defend yourself. Maybe that’s why all your friends abandoned you. They all saw how weak you truly are. They all saw how crappy of a hero you are. Which leads me to my next question. How are you a hero at all? Yeah, you can heal fast but so what? You can’t fight, you couldn’t even manage to kill yourself right.” Oliver said as he threw another bucket of cold ice water onto Barry’s back before leaning down and gripping his hair and yanking his head back.

“So, _Barry_ , Explain to me how you are even remotely associated with the title of ‘hero’.” He hummed. He enjoyed watching the moments of confliction on Barry’s face. It was fun to see him trying to decipher if he was really allowed to talk or if this was a trick question. He curled his fingers into Barry’s hair and pulled back slightly to show that he wanted an answer.

 

Barry’s eyes shown that of horror. One of the very few emotions he could feel as of the past four months. What would happen if he told him? Nothing good. Nothing good at all… But if he didn’t tell him, if he lied. Master would know. And Barry would be punished. Barry couldn’t take another punishment.. The beatings and the experimental tortures were one thing, but Master’s punishments were far, far worse.

 

He would tell him. It was his only chance. He could tell Master was getting bored with him, he would kill Barry and then Barry would never see his frie-

Wait

 

Why should Barry want to live? His friends had abandoned him, hadn’t they? They would have found him by now if they were really looking… Why was Barry still trying to live? There was nothing to live for?

 

Barry couldn’t understand. He had given up. His mind was in shambles, his physical body was not doing so well either… But still, his persistent will to live would not die.

“Sp-Speed..” Barry mumbled. HIs voice was sore and weak from the lack of use.

 

“Can you repeat that? A little louder or else I’ll make you scream it instead.” Master growled.

 

“S-Spe..Speed… I-I h-ha-have s-super-sp-speed.” He stuttered as he felt Master let his hair go.

 

“Hm… so, you’ve had superspeed and you weren’t going to tell me?” He asked, a hint of anger in his voice. Barry’s breath hitched in his throat… oh god… _oh god_

He had made Master angry… Now he was going to pay for it.

“M-Master pl-please… I-I’m sorry-” He was cut of by the back of Master’s hand lashing out across his face, sending him spiraling painfully to the ground.

 

“Feeling brave today aren’t we pet? First I find out you were lying to me, now you have the guts to speak out to me? Seems I haven’t beaten that out of you yet. And here I thought we made some progress.” He growled as Barry flinched painfully hard.

 

Barry began to have trouble breathing. Master wasn’t even touching him yet and already it was like he could feel those large hands slowly choking the life out of him.

 

He didn’t realize it. But he was hyperventilating. His breathing was strained and harsh, He was having trouble seeing. His body began to shake uncontrollably and the last thing he heard before passing out was Master’s harsh laugh.

 

~

 

Cisco’s vibed had gotten progressively more helpful. The first time Cisco had vibed anything other than Oliver’s face, He had seen the cell around him along with how badly Barry looked. He knew they needed to get him out and they needed to get him out now. But the question was, how? How did they rescue Barry if they didn’t know where he is?

 

“Cisco,” Oliver’s gruff voice spoke out. Everyone had been taking Barry’s disappearance hard. But Oliver had been taking it the hardest. Barry, his best friend. A man he cared about more than most at times, was stuck in some godforsaken prison being tortured by a man with his face. If- No, _When_ they brought Barry back, would things between them ever be the same? Would they ever get their Barry back? Would Barry be able to stand the sight of him? Or would his face be nothing more than a horrific reminder of what he had gone through?

 

“Yeah?” Cisco asked as he was focusing on trying to Vibe Barry by touching his suit.

 

“Any luck?” He asked and the look on Cisco’s face was enough to give him an answer.

 

“Not this time. So far, I’ve got a pretty good idea on what kind of place he’s being kept at. So far, it has to be in some mountainous terrain. The walls and everything are covered in stone-”

 

“Like Zoom’s hideout-slash- prison?” Caitlin asked. Cisco nodded. “I already looked into that. It’s not their. So we know that Evil Oliver can’t earth jump, so, he’s still here somewhere. He has to be. He couldn’t have left the state with Barry, the police of either here or Star would be notified. So he’s somewhere in Central City where there are large mountainous terrains.” Cisco stated.

 

“Like, oh I dunno, Nowhere in Central! Cisco, you have to try harder. Barry is in danger and-” Oliver began in an aggravated tone but Felicity had caught him before he could hurt anyone’s feelings.

 

“Oliver! I understand that you’re worried, But for Barry’s sake, how about we all work together, instead of letting our frustrations tear us apart because that’s not going to help anyone. ESPECIALLY, Barry.” She explained.

 

Oliver sighed softly and nodded “I’m sorry.” He mumbled before leaving the room. As he was leaving. Oliver got an idea. What about Vixen? She had been able to smell out William, couldn’t she do the same for Barry?

 

He hopes so because he already had his phone in hand and Vixen’s number dialed.

Hang on Barry, just a little longer. We’re coming for you.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, I know, sorry guys. 
> 
> Sorry if Vixen is a little OOC. First off, she's the one who appeared in arrow, not in LOT. Second, I don't know much about her except her name, and I decided a little banter wouldn't hurt with the load of angst this story gives you :)

Vixen wasn't able to come for a week.

During that week, the team decided that Barry probably was in the mountain terrarium on the border of the state.

Since deciding that, all they had to do was wait for Vixen.

“So who is this girl anyway?” Caitlin asked, the day she was supposed to show up.

“She's… an old friend,” Oliver said. No one said anything after that, seeing as Oliver wasn't going to say why he was bringing her.

Not five minutes later, a young woman with brown hair walked in.

“That must be her,” Cisco mumbled. Normally he would make a remark on how she looked, but he wasn't in the right mindset for that.

“Hi, you must be Vixen,” Caitlin said, glaring at Cisco while offering a hand to the new lady.

“Mari McCabe,” she corrected, shaking Caitlin’s hand.

“Sorry,” Caitlin said, letting go.

“So, Oliver,” Vix- Mari said, getting his attention. “You said you needed me to smell out a friend?” She asked, and Oliver nodded.

“Yea, he’s been… missing, for four and a half months,” he said.

“Wow,” Mari mumbled. “Do you have any idea where he is?” She asked.

“Yea,” Cisco said. “In the mountain range by the state border.”

Mari looked at him. “And how will we get there?” She asked, pointedly.

Cisco smirked as he stood up, raising a fist. “I have my ways,” he said, grabbing his goggles and putting them on. After he said that, he opened a portal. Mari couldn't help but gape.

“What are we waiting for?” Oliver demanded, grabbing his bow and quiver. “Let's go, while we know he's still alive.”

—————

Barry hung his head in defeat as his master walked away.

Master just attached him to the wall, by piercing his skin with metal clamps. He decided that it would heal if he ever decided to detach himself. One way or another, being _literally_ pinned to the wall was quite painful, and Master enjoyed it.

Barry stifled a sob. He couldn't cry, not yet. Not while Master was still in the room.

Master grabbed something from his table from hell, and walked back over to him.

“I know this is old school,” Master started, “But since you've been such a good boy, I decided to go easy on you today,” he said, holding up a knife. Barry gazed at it, not really thinking anything other than, “thank god.”

He didn't feel anything as Master went to work on Barry's body, recklessly carving him up.

“All done,” Master said, backing up to look at what he did. Barry looked down to find the skin on his stomach gone, blood pouring out of his middle like nobody's business.

Master went to grab a rag to stop the blood, so he wouldn't bleed out.

Barry took a deep breath. This was nothing compared to what usually happened to him, but it can still be pretty damn scarring.

——————

“This mountain range?” Mari asked Cisco.

“Yea, this is it,” Cisco said, looking around.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

Cisco took a deep breath before looking at the woman. “Look. How about I do my thing, and you do yours. Capisce?” He asked, irritated.

Mari laughed. “Capisce.”

Tapping her totem, Mari took the amazing nose of a bear. Apparently they have the best sense of smell.

As she started sniffing the air, Caitlin and Cisco looked at each other in confusion.

“You get used to it,” Oliver assured them.

Mari gave them a look, but didn't stop.

That is, until she smelled something unusual.

“Guys, I think I smell him, or, something,” she called out.

That sure got everyone's attention.

She then touched her totem again and took the speed of a cheetah, while Cisco watched where she went and made a portal for everyone else.

Arriving at the area she sensed him, they found Mari was staring a part of the mountain very closely.

“It's here,” she said.

“Woah, how’d you know that?” Cisco asked. Mari smirked and grabbed a well-blended doorknob.

Caitlin and Oliver giggled, while Cisco just scoffed.

Twisting the doorknob, Mari found it locked.

“It's locked,” she announced. “Cisco, can you do that teleportation thing you do?” She asked.

Cisco glared at her. “They're called vibes, and give me a second,” he said, putting his goggles on.

About two seconds later, he took them off.

“Something's blocking my vibes… I can't get in,” he said.

Oliver groaned. “Let me try,” he said, walking over to the door. Looking it over, he backed up to the edge of the mountain.

“Everyone, back up,” he demanded, and they did so.

Grabbing an explosive arrow and putting it in the bow, he aimed it at the door knob.

“Three, two, one,” he mumbled, before letting go of the arrow. All the explosion did was knock the door knob off, but the door cracked open a little bit with it.

“That works,” Cisco said.

Swinging the door open, the group ran inside to be greeted with an awful, yet relieving sight.

_Barry_.


	12. Chapter 12

Barry barely regestered the sound of the explosion, the blood loss and pure exhaustion had his brain in a haze. The metal clamps in his arms, holding him to the wall were the only things keeping him from slumping to the ground.

 

Master, on the other hand, Seemed a little surprised at the sudden sound. He turned his head quickly from what he was doing, which was cleaning Barry’s blood off of the knife he had just used to carve his stomnach up, and looked at the origon of the sound.

 

His gaze only hardened and he growled at the intruders. Damnit. They had found him. No! They weren’t taking his plaything, not yet!

He turned to face the people who had entered and looked at all of their faces. There was this earth’s him, He had to admit, it seemed he was handsom on all earths. There was also a dark skinned woman with brown hair and eyes and a weird necklace thing. Then there was a short latino looking man with some weird goggle looking things. Lastly, was a young woman with red-igh brown wavy hair and hazel brown eyes. He found it funny that his other self wore his little robin hood costume. He too once had a uniform of that nature, then again, green was an overated color. He perferred black.

 

“Step away from him, Now!” Oliver yelled in his disguised, gruff voice.

 

Master smirked and did exactly the opposite. He walked towards Barry who didn’t even flinch away, not even when Master grabbed his hair and yanked his head up before holfing the knife to his neck. As if that wasn’t scary enough. The others stomachs dropped when Barry leaned into the blade. Almost as if pleading for him to do it. To slit his throat.

 

“I said. Step.Away. From him.” Oliver’s snarl sneepened. If Barry had been cohearent, he would have been able to hear the promise of murder in his voice.

 

“And if I don’t? Not like you’ll kill me. See, while I was here, I decided to do a little research, _Mr.Queen._ ” He taunted making Oliver tighten his grip on his bow.

“See, even if I do step away,” He said, moving the blade away from Barry’s neck, only cutting it deep enough to cause droplets of blood. “It’s not like it will make any difference. Because he will still be mine. In these four and a half months, me and Barry have...  bonded. I found out a few things that I find rather… intresting. His healing.. Such a fun thing to play with. Did you know his fingers and limbs grow back? Oh! And his speed. Also a fun little thing to play with.” He laughed darkly.

 

Vixen snarled at the man that looked like Oliver. Caitlin was staring at Barry in pure horror and Cisco was trying not to show his anger.

 

Oliver… Oliver was dead silent. And that was deadly in itself.

The other Oliver let out another laugh. “Awe, what’s wrong? Don’t like me talking about my little pet?”

 

“He is not yout pet!” Cisco ground out.

The other Oliver turned and looked at him before smirking cruely. “Oh but isn’t he? He does as I ask, he rolls over, even plays dead.” He smirked as he set the knife down only to walk back towards Barry. He reached out to touch him but before he could, The real Oliver fired an arrow and it pinned ‘Master’s’ hand to the wall.

“So we want to play it rough?” He smirked before yanking the arrow out of his hand and at that point, Oliver rushed forwards to aim a punch at the dark oliver’s face, only to be dodged and retaliated by a fist to the stomach.

 

While the two Olivers fought. Cisco, Caitlin and Mari all moved to get Barry.

 

Barry wasn’t aware of his surroundings at all. The blood loss and the pure pain of it all was confusing him. One moment, he thought that Master was finally going to end it, finally put him out of his misery, then he felt the clamps being removed from his arms and he expected something much worse, but no.. he… he felt _gentle_  hands holding him, carying him somewhere… was he finally dead? What was going on?

 

Barry tried to focus his eyes and looked around at the faces surrounding him. It was.. His friends? Why were they here? They weren’t looking for him…. They didn’t care about him… Why were they here? Oh...Oh god… were they going to beat him too? No… No he couldn’t do it… Master was always so violent… he could deal with him though but… not his friends… he couldn’t do it.

 

“N-No…” He groaned softly and struggled against them. He wasn’t putting up much of a fight though. He was unbelievably weak but he wasn’t making it easy either. 

Even if they weren’t trying to attack him, If they were real, which he doubted they were, and they were trying to rescue him. He still couldn’t let them. Master would be furious if he let them rescue him. He might hurt them too… He didn’t want them to get hurt… Even if they didn’t care about him getting hurt.

 

“Barry, stop, dude we’re trying to help you, you’re making the bleeding worse! Barry- Stop!” Cisco tried as Caitlin was using Cisco’s jacket to stop the bleeding on his stomach. But still, Barry continued to struggle.Mari frowned and looked to the two Olivers, both were equally matched in strength and neither were going to win. She decided she would help. She grasped her totem and channeled her powers before running forwards and driving a final blow to the dark Oliver’s head, knocking him out cold. Oliver looked up at her and gave a short nod to thank her.

 

“We need to go, Barry’s not doing so good. What are we going to do about him?”  Mari asked as she nodded to the unconscious Oliver. Oliver snarled and hitched an arrow before firing it directly into the others heart.

 

“There, he’s dealt with.” He spat, not really meaning to be so cold to a friend. He may have given up killing. But he made an exception. No one. _No one_  would ever hurt Barry. Not while he could stop it.

 

“Let’s go.” He said to the others. He walked over to Barry who was still struggling. “Sorry Barry…” He whispered softly before pressing a pressure point in his neck, temporarily rendering him unconscious.

 

~

 

Cisco had hurried the group back to STAR labs, Caitlin huried setting up the medical equipment. Oliver held onto Barry. Mari hated to leave at this time, but there was nothing more she could do to help.

 

Caitlin began to check over all of his injuries. His bleeding had stopped and the skin was starting to grow back. The cut on his neck was at it’s scarred stage but would be gone within the hour. She checked the wounds from the clamps, they were deep and most likely tore through the muscle and caused some serious damage, but that would all heal. She hooked up an IV and a blood transfusion and would wait to see how he did.

 

Cisco and Oliver stood back, watching the Doctor do her work before Oliver found his voice.

“How… How is he?” He asked softly, not wanting to be too loud in case he woke up Barry.

 

“Physically… he’s not in the best shape, but he’ll heal....” She said giving a worried glance at the heart monitor. His heart beat was slow for a speedster. It was scary.

No one had to ask what else would be wrong. You don’t go through four and a half months of probably pure torture and come out mentally okay. Not even Oliver could do that.

 

“I’ll see the extent of the..mental damage, once he finally wakes up… We should all get some rest.” Caitlin said as she stared at the unconscious form of her injured friend. It was terrifying to see him like this.

 

“I think someone should be here for him, for when he finally wakes up.” Cisco said. Oliver immediately volunteered but Caitlin shot him down.

“Oliver… he’s seen a man with your face and voice torturing for nearly five months… I… I’m sorry but I don’t think it’s the best Idea to have your face be the first thing he sees when he wakes up.” She said apologetically. Oliver grit his teeth but looked down and nodded his head. He understood. He… He just wanted to be with him. To be here and make sure he was okay.

 

“If you want to stay close,” Cisco suggested, “There’s the guest room where Harry and his daughter stayed while they were her. You can sleep there?” 

  
Oliver nodded and went to head there. Cisco said he would stay and Caitlin left to go get some sleep. They would all be there for Barry when he woke up. They wouldn’t let him be alone ever again.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lowkey cried while writing this.
> 
> Mostly because of the song I was listening to, but still.

Barry came to consciousness about fourteen hours later, greeted not by the uncomfortable, chilling cell he’s grown accustomed to, but a soft, warm mattress.

Wait. That’s not right.

Barry’s eyes shot open. The ceiling wasn’t brown and damp, it was white and… clean.

Heart racing, he sat up in his bed as fast as he could, to be greeted with pain everywhere.

Barry mentally groaned as he lifted the blanket, finding his stomach area covered in white bandage.

Barry looked at it in confusion. He wanted to say something about it, ask whoever came in the room, but with his luck, this was a dream, an illusion, and Master would beat him if he spoke.

The memories of what happened then came flooding back, from the cut stomach to the illusion that he was being rescued.

What a dream he was in right now. He wondered what drug Master injected him with this time?

Barry stepped out of the bed, trying to stand, but he collapsed. He hasn’t used his legs in god knows how long, but he might as well use them in this illusion.

Trying to push himself up was even worse. The second he put his hands on the floor, he was greeted with a tremendous amount of pain.

He wanted to scream, but that would get Master’s attention, then Master would know he won.

Someone came rushing in the room. She looked exactly like…

_Caitlin_.

Barry shook it off. This was one sick illusion if it involved his friends.

“Barry, calm down, you're safe,” “Caitlin” said. Barry didn't even realize he was hyperventilating. She tried to touch him, and oh her touch was so gently, but he couldn't be touched. Not while he was “free”.

He flinched away, a look of panic and sadness crossing Caitlin's face.

“Barry, can you get back on the bed?” She asked him softly.

Barry shook his head. He didn't exactly want his back touching anything flat for the time being.

Caitlin breathed out a soft, “Ok,” thinking of a solution.

“Barry, you need rest, are you sure you don't want to be on the bed? It'd give your back a nice break,” she said, gently. Barry shook his head again, not daring to speak.

“Is there anywhere you'd like to lay down…” she asked. Barry violently shook his head. Then, his eyes widened and he scrambled up from the floor.

“Barry?” Caitlin asked, frantically. Barry started hyperventilating again, and backed away from Caitlin.

“Breath, Barry, just Breath,” Caitlin instructed, not risking touching him again.

Barry didn't. This time, he looked around as fast as he could, still panicking. He grabbed his head and tried turning around, obviously in pain as he did.

“Barry! Breath!” Caitlin demanded, a little too harshly. Barry stopped his soon-to-be panic attack at once. He turned back to Caitlin and bowed his head, waiting for whatever punishment was to come.

“Barry, I'm not going to hurt you,” Caitlin assured him. Barry looked up at her, surprise in his eyes.

At that same moment, Caitlin got a text from Joe, letting her know they were almost there.

Caitlin sent them a text telling them to wait, then turned back to Barry.

“Stay right there, ok?” She asked. Barry nodded his head.

Walking out of the cortex, Caitlin couldn't help but wonder why Barry hasn't said a word to her.

_Is he really damaged that bad?_ She wondered. She just hoped Joe and Iris could get him to speak.

She greeted them by the cortex, and, they started to make their way to the cortex when Caitlin stopped them.

“There are a few things you should know…” Caitlin said. Joe and Iris looked at each other, then back at her.

“Barry doesn't seem to like being touched, and he hasn't said a word yet. When you speak to him, speak gently. Don't shout or yell. And, I don't know how he would react, but don't go behind him. Most PTSD patients don't like it. Of course, I don't know how Barry would react,” Caitlin said.

Iris took a breath. “No touching, or yelling,” she said. “Got it.”

Caitlin then proceeded to bring Joe and Iris to the Cortex, where Barry hasn't moved an inch. He kept looking around, as if he still didn't believe where he was.

“Barry?” Caitlin asked, getting his attention. Barry looked over at her, not noticing Joe and Iris. When he did notice them, though, his eyes widened, and Caitlin swore she saw a smile cracking at his lips.

Iris was first to walk over to him, taking in how skinny and damaged he looked. The light that was in his eyes before he was taken was completely gone. He looked extremely skinny, and she hated the giant gauze pad wrapped around his stomach, and the gauze wraps around both his arms.

“Can… can I hug you, Barry?” She asked. Barry shook his head, breaking Iris’s heart.

“Ok,” Iris said, giving him a watery smile. Barry wanted to give her a smile back, but it didn’t feel… _right_.

Joe walked over next to Barry, who still hasn’t moved. Joe looked over Barry, thinking the same as Iris, but he also noticed Barry’s legs were shaking.

“Barr, are you ok? Would you like me to get you a stool?” Joe asked in his best dad voice. Barry nodded, knowing stools didn’t have backs to them.

While Joe was getting Barry the stool, Barry noticed Master standing outside of the cortex, gazing longingly at him. Barry’s eyes widened, and he started breathing heavily again.

Oliver noticed Barry’s reaction to seeing him, and walked away, a tear making its way down his face. He didn’t notice it until now, but he truly loved Barry, and now, and maybe forever, Barry couldn’t even look at him without panicking.

Iris noticed Barry start freaking out, and tried to help him best she could.

Thing is, she didn’t know what to do.

“Barry, Breath, Breath,” she said, trying not to freak out on her own. This was all so sudden, why did he start freaking out?

“What’s wrong?” She asked as soon as Barry got his breathing under control. Barry shakily pointed to the entrance of the cortex, but Master was gone.

Iris looked over to where Barry was pointing and immediately knew what he saw.

Oliver must’ve walked by or something. They would have to have a serious talk about that later.

“He’s not there, Barry, you’re safe,” Iris assured him.

Everyone kept saying he’s safe, so why didn’t Barry believe them?


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shortness! Hope you guys like the chapter!

Oliver couldn’t do it. He couldn’t stand there and watch as the mere sight of him sent Barry into fits of panic attacks. It was painful to watch. 

 

“Oliver.” Caitlin’s voice spoke from behind him. Oliver turned with a stoic face. He wouldn’t let anyone see his emotions. Not right now. He was too vulnerable and if he let his real emotions show, it would only make this whole situation worse.

“About what happened…. Barry… His mental state is extremely fragile at this point. In cases such as… these… The victims tend to believe that once they are finally rescued, things are a trick, or a dream. Sometimes the victims get over it and finally realize that everything's real. At this point. It’s just a matter of waiting and trying to convince Barry that this is real. That he’s safe.” She explained hoping that her explanation would make Oliver have a little more comfort with the situation.

 

Oliver nodded. While her little explanation did give a little hope that things would get better, it didn’t even begin to touch the fact that the man he loved was terrified of his face. How was he every suppose to tell Barry how he felt if Barry may hate the sight of him. Even if Barry got over all of this, how would Barry ever love the face of the man who tortured him?

 

“Also, Oliver… until we can get Barry in a stable enough mental state… I… I don’t think you should be around him.” She said the last part a little softer. Almost as if she didn’t want to say it. She loved Barry, and she loved Oliver. She never wanted to hurt them or their feelings. But she also didn’t want to risk Barry’s body to suffocate from anymore panic attacks.

 

Oliver’s face dropped at this news. “N-Not… What the hell do you mean?!” He snarled. He wasn’t meaning to get angry but Oliver couldn’t just stand by and let Barry think that _he_  himself was that… that fucking bastard.

 

Caitlin jumped a little, startled by the sudden anger. “Oliver… If I knew that Barry could handle it, I wouldn’t mind you trying to talk to him, trying to convince him that you aren’t... _him_  but Barry is in a very fragile state right now. I don’t want his healing to be halted due to any panic attacks.” She explained in her doctor voice.

“I’m sorry, Oliver. But until I say otherwise I don’t want you around Barry. You can stay here if you want. Just keep out of Barry’s sight okay?” She said before turning to return to her current patient.

 

Oliver just stood in the hallway. HIs mind trying to accept the fact that he wasn’t allowed near Barry. He wasn’t leaving. That he knew for a fact. But he had to walk out of earshot of Barry because he needed to hit things and maybe yell a bit.

 

~

 

Barry sat on the bed looking around cautiously at the others around him. Iris and Joe were sitting near him but not too close, thankfully. He didn’t want to be in anymore closed spaces. Not like it mattered. This wasn’t real. Master’s drug was causing this. If he started to believe this, Master would take him out of here and start hurting him again. He would be punished for thinking he was out. He didn’t want to be punished anymore. Master’s punishments hurt…

 

“Barry?” Caitlin’s gentle voice spoke. Oh how he wished this were real. How he wished that his friends really did care about him. How he wished that they would rescue him. But they don’t and they never will. He was stuck with Master until he decided to finally kill him.

 

Barry looked up at her as he held his hands together nervously. His shoulders were hunched forwards in a submissive, defeated posture and his eyes… his eyes made him look like a puppy that had been kicked one too many times. He didn’t speak. He wasn’t allowed to speak. Master would punish him if he spoke.

 

“Barry. I need you to eat something okay? You only have to eat as much as you can. But you won’t heal if you don’t eat okay?” She said gently as she had Cisco bring her some soup. She was positive Barry’s stomach couldn’t hold anything solid. So soup and bread had to do until he got his appetite back and was able to hold anything down.

Joe took this as a sign and grabbed a folding food tray and set it in front of Barry before Cisco put the soup and bread onto the table. Barry made no move to eat it. He wasn’t aloud to eat unless master said so. These people weren’t master… master would get mad…

 

Iris had tears in her eyes. Why wasn’t Barry eating? 

Barry saw her tears and felt bad. He didn’t want to make Iris cry. Not even imaginary Iris. But he didn’t want to be beat again… his body still hurt from the last beating…

 

“Bar… You need to eat son. Please?” Joe begged softly. Barry looked over at him. Barry looked down at the food before shaking his head slowly.

Caitlin’s face dropped a little more “Why Barry? He isn’t here. He won’t hurt you. We promise. The guy you saw earlier was Oliver. _Our_  Oliver. He isn’t going to hurt you either. Please eat something.” Caitlin begged as she walked over and sat on the end of his bed. Barry visibly tensed. Was this where his dream turned into a nightmare? Would they start force feeding him? Would they hurt him if he didn’t eat?

 

Barry looked over at Caitlin expectantly but she made no move to do anything. This confused Barry badly. Why wasn’t anyone hurting him? 

“Barry. Please eat. Just a spoonful is all I ask. Please?” She begged. Barry looked at her for a few more moments before turning to the food. He was tempted. Tempted to see if he could eat. Maybe if he ate he could see if this was real. Master would beat him awake if this was fake… but if it was real, he would be able to eat right? He lifted his hand slowly. Glancing at the others cautiously as he reached for the spoon. He was close to grabbing the spoon but he was beginning to have second thoughts. If this was fake and Master knew he ate without permission then he would face more than just a beating. He retracted his hand and shook his head at the food.

 

Caitlin sighed softly. They were almost making progress… But she knew that after what Barry had been through, no one would be able to work through it that quickly. She just had to be patient.

  
  


Four weeks had passed and Barry was making small progress. They were still having problems, Caitlin had no choice but to hook him up to an IV because he continued to refuse to eat. Barry had had a panic attack when she first tried to hook him up to the IV bag. Caitlin hated doing it but she had Joe hold him still while she inserted the needle. The was a couple days after they had first tried to feed him.  Then there was the nightmares, the nights where he refused to sleep, plus the fact Barry refused to talk. Not even if he was in pain. Caitlin had to spot out any discomfort which was hard seeing as Barry had been subjected to torture and didn’t really show any signs of pain. Not unless it was extreme.

 

But the small amount of progress they had made was getting Barry to walk again. Barry was often found wandering the building. Barry had been wandering around. No one else was there which brought a little comfort. He had wandered downstairs, just wanting to look around. He remembered that they had a guest room and Barry wanted to lay on an actual bed. So he had walked down to the room it was in, the one where Harry and Jesse stayed when they were here during the attack of Zoom.

 

He smiled at the memories but his smile immediately dropped when he entered the doorway and he saw Master sitting on the bed. Barry’s breath quickened and he was frozen to the spot. His horror intensified when Master looked up at him, a slight look of… surprise? Barry didn’t know. He didn’t care. All he knew is that Master would be mad at him for making eye contact… and standing.

  
Immediately he got down on his hands and knees and kept his head down. He was silently begging Master not to hurt him. His wounds were healed but he knew Master would make more. He always made more...


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the late update. I'm balancing school and after school sports and homework all at the same time, so my time to write is at 10pm or in the middle of class, which only works out sometimes. Please forgive me ;-;

Oliver wanted to be alone. Not for any reason, just to think.

 _Barry’s afraid of you_.

If Barry couldn’t even look at him, why did he bother staying at all? The only way he could help was to stay out of the way, wasn’t it?

_He always will be._

_No one wants you around, you’ll just traumatize Barry even more._

_You’re only in the way._

Oliver was snapped out of his thoughts by hearing a noise by his door.

Looking over to the source of the noise, Oliver saw Barry on his hands and knees, like a dog, with his head down.

Surprised, Oliver started panicking.

He thinks you’re gonna hurt him

“Barry, you can get up. I’m not gonna hurt you,” Oliver said. Barry got up almost mechanically, still looking at the ground.

Olivers heart clenched. Barry really thought he was the guy that… that tortured him all those months.

“Barry,” he said, trying not to let tears come out of his eyes. Barry’s head snapped up, a dead expression on his face, and fear in his eyes.

“I’m not, going to hurt you,” Oliver said again. Barry’s eyes widened, knowing a punishment was sure to come later if he bought into what Master was saying.

“I won’t even touch you,” Oliver said, looking Barry in his hazel eyes.

Barry relaxed for a second, but not a half second later he tensed up again. He knew that Master would beat him if he even remotely relax.

Oliver figured the best way to calm Barry down was to order him away. It killed Oliver to take advantage of Barry this way, but he didn’t want Barry to be around him, not when he was afraid.

“Barry, how about you go to Caitlin, see if you can go home with Joe?” Oliver asked. When Barry didn’t move, Oliver arched an eyebrow. When he did, Barry might as well have just used his speed to obey his master.

Oliver sighed, and sat back down on the bed. Why, of all doppelgangers out there, why did it have to be his that tortured Barry?

\-----

Barry walked into the cortex shaking. Why was Master so quick to get rid of him? Was he planning something big, something that might actually kill him this time? Was that why he’s been in this illusion this long?

Caitlin noticed Barry walk in, seemingly shaken up. Had he seen Oliver?

Oliver had made a speech (over a phone call - not willing to risk being seen by Barry) earlier that day to Caitlin suggesting that Barry should go home with Joe. He said the familiar environment might help out with his PTSD.

“Hey, Barry, I was thinking, how would you like to go home tonight? I figured you’ve been here a week, and you probably don’t want to be here longer than you had to,” she asked Barry.

Barry eagerly nodded his head, not because Master wanted him to go home, but because he was starting to get a little homesick.

Caitlin smiled at him. “Ok,” she said, pulling her phone out to call Joe.

\-----

About an hour later, Joe finally came by, and Caitlin had a list of cautions for Barry when he went home.

“You should keep all knives, razors, anything sharp away from him, as I strongly assume he’s been cut up numerous times. It could bring back memories. Make sure he doesn’t go off alone, you never know what he could do. He still doesn’t like to sit down, or lean against walls, but he doesn’t seem to have a problem with laying down, so long as it’s on his side or his stomach, and not his back,” Caitlin said to Joe, making sure he knew how to treat Barry,

“Don’t, unless it’s a major emergency, touch him. Anywhere. He still doesn’t react well to touch, it might lead to a panic attack.

“He seems to like sweaters, or warm clothing, so never ask him about that in case he becomes self-conscious about it. He does have some pretty bad anxiety from the trauma, so if he gets jumpy or anything, don’t be surprised. I still don’t know how well he reacts from having people behind him, but I assume he wouldn’t like it, so stay in his sight as much as you can. And don’t bring him out in public. The last thing he probably wants is to be around more people.

“Also, make sure he eats enough. His metabolism has deteriorated tremendously, so he won’t eat as much, but you still need to make sure he eats. He doesn’t seem to like it, still,” Caitlin finally finished.

Joe let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding. “Please tell me you have all that written down,” he said. Caitlin nodded.

“Way ahead of you,” she said, pulling out not one, not two, but _three_ copies of the rules, both two pages long.

“Oh god,” Joe sighed.

“Joe, I’m sorry, but this is the only way I’m going to let him go home,” Caitlin said. Joe looked over the rules. There were some things on there that Caitlin hadn’t said, things like “Don’t let Barry go to work,” and, “Don’t encourage him to speak too much.” The most important one, though, was the only one in big bold letters:

**Don't let Barry have any association with Oliver. This means no texting, calling, or contact with Team Arrow.**

Joe rolled up the paper and put it in his pocket. “Ok, I got it. Now, where’s my son?” He asked.

Caitlin waved past Joe, as if she was giving a signal to someone, and Cisco walked over with Barry, who was about a good three feet behind him.

“He’s all yours, Joe,” Cisco said, moving aside so Barry could slowly walk past Cisco.

Joe smiled at Barry, trying to get his spirits lifted. “You ready to go home?” Joe asked. Barry nodded, but he didn’t smile.

Caitlin saw Joe’s hope falter a little bit, but he didn’t let it show.

“Let’s go, then,” Joe said, motioning Barry forward.

Barry hesitated a little bit, but followed Joe out of the cortex, none the less.

Caitlin looked at Cisco. “How are you holding up?” she asked. “You haven’t said much since he got back,” she said.

Cisco closed his eyes and sighed. “It’s hard, you know. He’s back, but it feels like… like he’s not really back, you know?” he said. Caitlin nodded.

Cisco then looked at Caitlin. “I just want my best friend back,” he said, quietly.

Caitlin sighed. “Me too.”

\-----

Joe got out of the car, looking over at Barry, who was just staring ahead.

The ride home was very awkward, Barry didn’t move the whole time, he just stared ahead at the road.

Joe walked over to his side of the door and opened it. Barry looked up at Joe, realisation finally settling in that he was home.

He was finally home.

Getting out of the car, Barry looked at the house, almost like he was having a staring contest with it.

Then, he walked up to the door.

Looking at the door, Barry wasn’t sure if he wanted to open it or not. He felt like the second he did, this dream would end.

Barry reached for the doorknob, but then pulled away, and stared at it for another moment before repeating the process.

He did this one more time, before finally opening the door.

Barry stood in front of the open door, looking inside, as if something was about to jump at him.

Then, very reluctantly, Barry put a foot inside. Not too long after, he put another one in, until he was standing inside.

And, for the first time in four and a half months, he smiled.

 


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so long, school started and ive been super busy. Please forgive me

It had been about four weeks since Barry finally returned to the West house. Nothing was the same, but… it was helping Barry heal. He still had nightmares, he was still terrified of everything and he never spoke unless he was having a halucination or a nightmare. Joe had called Captain Singh that Barry had been found. He told him most of what had happened, leaving out specific details but giving enough information to let Singh know the extent of the situation. Singh had completely understood and let Joe know that he was also allowed as much time off as he needed to get Barry back to normal.

 

“Thank you, Captain.”

 

“No thanks needed West. Allen needs you right now, much more than we do. Make sure he gets better, okay?” He said earning a ‘I sure will.’ from Joe before the phone conversation ended.

 

Soon the sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. “Dad.” Iris spoke up “It’s happening again.” She sighed softly before heading back upstairs. Barry had been sleeping better but his nightmares were still bad. Joe tried to listen to Caitlin’s rule about ‘no touching’ but it was hard to just stand there and speak to his son to try and pull him out of his sleep. He wanted to hold him like he use to when Barry was young and his mother’s death was fresh in his mind.

 

Joe sighed as well before trotting up the stairs and into Barry’s room where, sure enough, the scarlet speedster was thrashing about in his sleep, whimpering and crying out as some invisible force tormented him. He swore that if Oliver hadn’t already killed that bastard, he would have.

“Barry, come on son, you gotta wake up, it’s just a dream.” He called out to him as he sat on the end of the fragile boy’s bed.

 

“N-No… p-please...I..Sorry..” Barry whimpered fearfully before yelping and jerking to the side as if someone had struck him.

 

“Barry!” Joe yelled as he tried desperately to hold back from grabbing his son and shaking him awake.

Barry still showed no signs of waking from his slumber of hell.

Finally, Joe couldn’t take it. He reached out, Iris told him not to but Joe had already grabbed Barry’s arm.

 

Immediately the tall and lanky brunette jumped from the bed before stumbling and slamming into the wall. The flat surface against his back not only knocked the air out of him but he immediately pulled away, he was slightly confused that he was able to pull away from it, but still, someone had grabbed him. Were they trying to hurt him? Were they trying to take him back to master?

 

Oh God… Master must be mad… he… he believed he was at home, he allowed himself to think he was safe and now Master was going to punish him.

“P-Please… P-Please d-don’t… I-I’m sorry M-Master…” He mumbled fearfully as he sat in the middle space between his bed and the wall with his knees drawn up to his chest and ducked his head into his knees before covering his head with his hands. He was having trouble breathing. He couldn’t breathe, no matter how hard he tried to suck in oxygen, his lungs kept constricting and forcing any air he got in back out.

 

“-arry!”

 

Someone was calling to him, but he couldn’t pay attention to them. Master was gonna be mad. He was going to punish him…. Nonono…. He didn’t want to be punished. He was scared… he didn’t want Master to hurt him anymore.

 

“Barry look at me!” A familiar voice yelled out as they held onto his arms. Thinking it might be Master, Barry forced his eyes to focus on the one talking to him, but he was confused to find Joe looking at him. Holding his arms and talking to him.

 

“Barry, hey, it’s okay Bear, you’re safe.” He promised in a soothing tone. His gentle brown eyes were shining into Barry’s as he slowly began to calm down. His breathing was now even, shaky, but even.

 

“You with us Barry?” Iris asked as she knelt beside Joe, starring at her foster brother.

Barry frowned. He should be with Master… Master had called him hadn’t he? This was an illusion… he shouldn’t be able to feel them touching him… Was… was this real?

 

For the first time in months, he had allowed himself to hope. He allowed himself to gain hope that this was all real. That he was safe… If that was true then… had that been Oliver? Not Master?

 

Barry pulled away from Joe and wrapped his arms around himself. He was confused and scared. Iris’s heart broke at the sight of her best friend looking utterly terrified. Joe was hurting just as bad but couldn’t see it, he knew Barry would take a while to heal… he just wished he had his son back, right now he had a broken shell of what his son use to be. But they would get there. They just had to be patient with him, he would heal. He just needed time.

 

Iris and Joe looked at each other before Joe decided to get up. He needed to call STAR labs and ask a few questions reguarding Barry.

“You’re safe Barry. I promise, i’m gonna go call Caitlin, just sit here with Iris until I get back and I’ll help you back into bed, okay?” Joe said before getting up to go to the phone. Iris stayed by Barry and soothed him, keeping him company until Joe returned.

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

Caitlin was sitting in the cortex with a deep frown. She was worried about Barry, she was feeling guilty as well. Barry had been kidnapped, here, in STAR labs and she and Cisco had been none the wiser that, that was even happening. It made her feel so _so_ guilty. What did Barry ever do to deserve that fate? They had failed to protect their friend from a dark fate and now Barry was suffering because of it.

 

“Hey,” Cisco’s voice cut through Caitlin’s thoughts. The strawberry brunette looked up at the short genius, trying not to show that she was upset. “Yeah?” She asked as she stood and walked over to meet the short latino.

 

Cisco’s face was dark, he hadn’t smiled in a while, even less when he saw that condition Barry was in when they brought him home. “What if… What if Barry never returns to normal?” He asked in a small voice. The thought hadn’t been far from anyone’s mind, it was just a matter of time to see who asked it.

 

Caitlin bit her lip. It was a scary thought, one she didn’t want to have. Central City needed The Flash and everyone needed Barry. He was too important of a person. And not because he was the flash, but because he had a smile that could brighten the darkest of moods, he had a heart of gold and he was the last person to deserve any of what happened to him over these last few months.

 

“He’ll get better.. It just… it’ll take some time. Barry went through a lot of psyc hological trauma as well as physical. We don’t even have a clue of the extent of the damage and I can’t find out because of his healing, so we just have to be patient until Barry is ready.” She said in a caring tone.

 

Cisco nodded before hearing a phone ring, he checked his and saw it was Joe, he answered.

“Hello?”

 

_ ”Hey, Cisco, Is Caitlin there? I need to ask her a few questions.” _

 

“Uhh yeah, one sec.” Cisco held out the phone to Caitlin. “For you.”

 

The strawberry brunette took the phone and repeated Cisco’s actions.

“Hello?”

 

_”Caitlin, Barry just had a bad nightmare, and I couldn’t wake him from it, how am I supposed to wake him if I can’t touch him?”_ He asked, a hint of desperation in his voice.

 

Caitlin seemed to think on this. “... This can count as an emergency, try to wake im up by yelling at him, if, and only if, that doesn’t work, then you can touch him. He shouldn’t stay in a nightmare too long becuse his heart could speed up way too fast, even for a speedster.” She explained.

 

Joe was silent, taking in the info or possibly writing it down. _/“Okay, Thank you. I did touch him, he woke up immediately. But…”_  He trailed off.

 

“What do you mean? What happened?” Caitlin asked, getting worried at this point.

 

_“Barry actually calmed down for a moment when I did… is that a good sign?”_ He asked.

  
Caitlin smiled “Yeah, it is. Keep trying to get those reactions, small touches as long as he’s comfortable with them, no hugs, he’ll feel trapped. But try to just show him that he’s safe and that we won't hurt him by touching him.” She explained. The two said good byes and hung up. That was a really good sign. It mean that it wasn’t impossible to get their Barry back.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't tell you how awesome the other author is for understanding my reason for a late update. 
> 
> Guys I seriously am sorry, but my life has become about full, leaving little time for writing, I hope you guys understand.

The next morning, Barry seemed to forget about Joe touching him. Joe noticed that when he went to the kitchen, he steered clear from Joe, as he usually did.

It really broke Joe’s heart that Barry was still like this, refusing to speak or be touched. The only way him or Iris remembered what he sounded like were the videos with him in them.

He missed the old Barry, the one who would light up a room just by being there. He missed the science rants Barry would go on without realising it, and turning red once he realised what he was talking about.

Barry looked at Joe, he had a look in his eye. A look of pity, one Barry hated. He hated how everyone would talk about him as if he wasn’t there, how they would come close to touching him, then quickly pulling away, as if he was going to break.

He did hate being touched, touch reminded him of Master, and reminded him that Master was probably coming back for him.

Even if Master was gone for good, and Barry wasn’t his captive anymore, he knew he was still mentally under Master’s control. And as much as he wanted to be free, as much as he was desperate for things to go back to normal again, he knew they wouldn’t.

Barry grabbed an apple, inspected it as if it was going to kill him, then took a bite out of it as he walked away.

He didn’t notice Iris practically running down the stairs at the same time.

Iris accidentally bumped into him as she came downstairs, and he couldn’t get to the other side of the walls fast enough.

“Shit, Barry, I’m so sorry,” Iris quickly said, but Barry was curled up against the wall, shaking.

Joe heard the noise being made in the other room and went to see what was going on. He walked into the room to find Barry shaking against the wall, and Iris standing there, with no idea what to do.

“Iris, what’s going on?” Joe demanded.

Iris looked at him, worry crossing her face. “I… I just bumped into him and he went into a full on panic attack or something,” Iris panicked. Joe looked at his son.

Barry was curled up against the wall, his head tucked in his knees. He was still slightly shaking, and his arms looked like they were covered in sweat.

Joe walked over to him, and squatted next to the younger man.

“Barry,” Joe said. Barry didn’t move. “You’re safe,” Joe told him. “We aren’t going to hurt you.”

Joe said this about three or four times, before Barry finally relaxed and look up at Joe, tears streaking his face.

“Barry,” Joe whispered again, holding tears back from seeing his son so vulnerable.

At that, Barry did something Joe never expected him to do again.

He reached up and _hugged_ him, sobbing into Joe’s shoulders.

And Joe returned the hug, letting his own tears fall.

\-----

Joe had to work that day, as much as he hated it, so Iris had to take Barry back to STAR Labs. Caitlin asked for Barry to go in that day, just for an hour or so, after the events that took place the night before.

Unfortunately for Iris, Barry didn’t want to go.

“Barry, Caitlin wants to see you. She won’t touch you,” Iris promised. Barry shook his head and crossed his arms.

Iris sighed. It was impossible for her to get him there if he wouldn’t cooperate.

“You know what? How about I ask if she can come here?” Iris asked, to which Barry nodded, then shook his head again quickly.

Iris groaned again. “Barry, you’re gonna have to see her one way or another, so either I drag your ass over to STAR Labs myself, or she can come here. Your choice,” Iris threatened. It was an empty threat, but it still scared Barry.

His eyes widened and he shook his head quickly. He then made his hands into a finger phone, then pointed to the ground.

“You want her to come here?” Iris asked. Barry nodded his head, then ran up to his room to get away.

Iris watched him run upstairs as she pulled out her phone. It crushed her to see Barry like this, but it also made her angry. Angry at the Oliver that took him, made him like this. Angry at the team for not finding Barry sooner, angry at herself for not trying harder.

And worst of all, she felt like she was taking it all out on Barry.

“Hello? Iris, is everything ok?”

Iris was shaken out of her thoughts by Caitlin. She didn’t even realise she dialled the number!

“Yea… Hey, Cait, if it’s not too much, could you possibly check up on Barry over here? He’s refusing to go to STAR Labs,” Iris asked.

“Of course,” Caitlin said.

“Thank you so much, Caitlin,” Iris said, before hanging up. She then looked up the stairs again.

I should probably go check on Barry, She thought, before walking up the stairs.

She knocked on his door once, with no answer from Barry. So she tried again.

Nothing.

“Barry? I’m coming in, ok?” Iris said, before opening the door.

Barry was curled up in the middle of the bed, head between his knees again, but this time he just looked asleep.

As Iris got closer to him, she noticed that his eyes were open, but they looked as blank as ever.

Truth was, when he heard that Caitlin was going to run a check up on him, he kind of blanked. Check up’s could mean anything. What if she needed blood? She would jam a needle in his arm. Or if she needed blood pressure done? He was sure she’d end up cutting his arm off. That’s how Master cut his arm off once. Or, to be more precise, squeezed it off.

Thinking of the pain, and the memory, Barry just wanted to be alone.

Being alone was something that Barry didn’t get very often. Someone was always in the room with him, and it was kind of suffocating.

But he couldn’t do anything about it, because he was scared. Scared of what might happen to him if he did talk.

Everytime he talked the last four months, he would get beaten.

Not again.

When Iris came in, Barry’s heart dropped. He wanted to shout, _“Can’t a guy get just five minutes of alone time?”_

But again, he couldn’t.

So he just curled up in the middle of the bed, like a coward.

“Caitlin’s going to be here in about fifteen minutes,” Iris informed him, and Barry’s heart dropped.

 _Just do this one more time, one more time and it'll be over,_ he thought to himself, before nodding in his current position.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Oh my god this has taken forever, im sorry, me and the other author have been /extremely/ busy with school. 
> 
> Also, this is a very dark chapter, i updated the warnings, please /please/ do not read if this will affect you in any way.

Fifteen minutes had passed and Caitlin was right on time. The doctor walked into the west’s house, her bag full of the things needed to do a full check-up on Barry.

 

“Thanks for coming Cait, it means a lot.” Iris said with a small sigh.

 

“It’s nothing, we all just want to see Barry get better so I really don’t mind making a fifteen minute trip. How is he doing?” She asked, switching between her doctor voice and regular voice.

 

“He’s… I can’t really tell. He still avoids contact, refuses to speak and… I just really wish things could go back to the way they were. Back to before that… /bastard/ hurt him.” Iris said, her anger and sadness slipping into her voice.

 

Caitlin nodded slightly. She agreed, and she very much enjoyed the idea of going back in time to freeze the other to death. But… she had to shake that idea out of her head. Barry needed kindness, not anger or resentment, even if it wasn’t at all directed at him.

 

“He’s upstairs.” Iris added, letting Caitlin walk by her to go to the room Barry resided in.

 

She knocked on the door, not wanting to walk in and startle him. “Barry? Can I come in?” She asked, just loud enough for the speedster to hear her.

 

There was a moment of silence, no answer. “Barry?” Cait tried again, trying to see if she could get a spoken answer. Of course, she didn’t. There was a grunt of confirmation and Caitlin let out a soft sigh of disappointment before opening the door. “Hey Barry, I’m just gonna do a quick check up okay? No needles, I promise. I’m gonna be real quick and then I’ll let you be, does that sound okay?”

 

Barry was sitting on the bed, his back was close to, but not touching, the headboard. His knees were drawn up to his chest and his arms were wrapped around them. His chin rested on top and his eyes were downcast. But Caitlin noticed that his eyes weren’t scared, or sad… annoyed?

 

As curious as she was as to why, she couldn’t help but feel a little better. Barry wasn’t scared anymore… thank god. Maybe he still didn’t like to be touched or speak or be around people unless he had to be, at least now he wasn’t terrified of his own shadow.

 

Which made her think for a moment. “Barry.” She said, trying to get his attention. He glanced upwards before turning his eyes back to the ground. “I’ll let this be up to you. When I’m done with your check up, I can either let you stay here and give you some alone time,” She paused letting that sink in before finishing “Or I can see if maybe team Arrow can come spend some time over here?”

It was a really risky question, especially with letting Oliver come near Barry, especially since he seemed to be making progress, but… if they didn’t try to progress any further than what good would they be doing? Barry _had_ to be tired of the same thing over and over.

 

Barry stayed silent, still saying nothing; and for a moment, Caitlin figured she wouldn’t get an answer. But then Barry looked up towards her and held up two fingers.

“You wanna see team arrow?”

 

A nod was her answer.

 

“Alright.” She said hesitantly. She hoped that maybe Barry would make some progress, she was worried about Barry interacting at all with Oliver but maybe with Felicity and Diggle there it might help.

 

She finished her check up, making sure not to startle Barry, or grab him unless he knew she was going to do it.

Once she was done, she left the room, letting Barry have some alone time whilst she dialed Oliver’s number.

 

“Hey Oliver.” 

_"Hey. Everything okay?"_   


“Yeah, everythings okay. I was actually calling because I’d like you, Felicity, and Diggle to come visit Barry-”

_"Is he okay? Did something happen?_ ”

“No, he’s fine. He’s making progress actually. I want to see if his state might actually progress more seeing you guys. He’s finally showing emotions besides sadness and fear, maybe if we can let him distinguish you from… /him/ then maybe they’ll be a chance he might make a full mental recovery. Please?”

 

There was a soft sigh on the other end of the line, and for a moment, Caitlin was scared he would say no.

 

_”Yeah… I guess, Dig’s busy with personal matters but Felicity will go.”_

 

Caitlin let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding “Thank you, Oliver.”

 

_ ”No problem, But Caitlin…” _

 

Caitlin listened with a soft frown 

 

_"Are you sure_   _that Barry being around me is the best idea?”_

 

Caitlin paused to ponder his question. There was the threat of Barry self-destructing at the sight of Oliver, but… if Barry could realize that this was his Oliver, not that other bastard. Then maybe it could help Barry’s progress. Give all of them hope that Barry could get better.

“Yes. Of course your interactions with him will have to be monitored and limited but it will help.”

There was an ‘ok’ at the other end of the line before the other hung up, as did Caitlin. She really hoped that things would go as planned, she hoped this helped Barry. She hoped she was making the right decision.

  
  


____________________________________________________________________________

 

Barry watched as Caitlin left the room, and for once, he semi relaxed. He was able to be alone again. The constant person's surrounding him all of the time was _suffocating_. He was sick of all the worrying and being treated like glass. Like if they so much as touched him then he’d shatter into dust that they would never put back together.

 

He let his legs stretch out and he finally leaned back onto the bed, letting the softness of the mattress ease against his back. He sighed softly as he stared across to the blank wall-well, it wasn’t completely blank. There were pictures hung up in neat little frames. One of him and Iris, him and Joe, all three of them. Barry looked at himself in one of the pictures, he was smiling.... Something he hadn’t seen on his own face in a while… matter of fact, he hadn’t seen himself at all recently, always refusing to look in the mirror or anything reflective because he was scared of what he might see. Yes he had super healing and didn’t scar… but with what Mas...Mast...with what /he/ did to him, who know what sort of scars were on him? And… it would bring back too many memories of times he’ll never be able to have again. No more laughing… No more smiling, no more spars with Oliver, no more joking around with Cisco… no more Flash…

 

He shook his head to clear the thoughts away. He could have that back...right? That’s why he agreed to see team Arrow. Because… If that Oliver was really _his_ Oliver… he wouldn’t hurt him. And Felicity and Diggle would be there too. 

 

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if he made the right decision. Hell, he broke into a panic attack just because Iris, a woman he’d lived with since he was eleven, bumped into him. How would he react to Oliver’s face? What if he hurt his feelings? And not in a childish way but more of...what if he had another panic attack? What if he had a bad one? Oliver would hate himself… He couldn’t do that to Oliver.

He tried to lie still and let himself relax but he had spent far too long on the bed on his back, it was uncomfortable and the memories that came with it were even more so.

He turned on his side and tried to ignore the flickers of memories that were coming back to him.

 

_ He was chained to the floor, his hands cuffed to a metal plate in the ground, his legs tied apart and bent. He had no clothes on, none except for his boxers. He struggled and whimpered as the cold assaulted his pale skin. _

 

_ “What’s wrong pet? Self conscious?” The familiar taunting voice hissed as he shown himself, walking out from behind a corner, he had a large bag with him and he really didn’t want to know what the hell was in that bag. _

_ Barry whimpered and whined, struggling pitifully. The reason he was struggling was because at this point, he still had hope… stupid, stupid, hope… _

 

_ “L-Let me go...please…” He whined. But the Oliver look-alike just laughed and knelt down, setting the bag on the ground. Barry tried to look to see what was in it but he had no such luck, Oliver took out a strip of fabric and roughly tied it around Barry’s eyes. Which made him even more uncomfortable and terrified.  _

_ There was silence, minus the rustling of Oliver no doubt digging into the bag. _

 

_ A few moments later, the rustling stopped and Barry felt freezing hands gripping at the hem of his boxers “N-NO!” Barry gasped and tried to struggle but the restraints held him firmly in place. He heard Oliver make a clicking sound with his tongue and burning pain erupted in his hip. He felt warm liquid dripping down his hip and his boxers were pulled away. _

_ “You wanna do this the hard way, then so be it, pet~” He purred. Barry definitely did not like where this was going. He felt a lump in his throat and he was finding it difficult to breath. _

 

_ He felt Oliver spreading his legs, then, hot, white, blinding pain erupted within him as a foreign object was forced into him. He cried out and tried to jerk away but found he could not move, not from the restraints, but the pain of moving alone held him still. He choked out a sob as the object began to move in a thrusting motion. _

 

_ “Just to ease your mind a bit, I’m not in there. I don’t ‘swing that way’ if you will, but you’re still a little too disobedient for my taste, so, what better way to break you than this?” He cooed once more. _

 

_ Barry struggled and threw his head side to side “N-No… s-stop! My friends will- Agh!” He let out another scream as a second object was forced into him with the other still in there. He could feel himself being ripped apart. It hurt so bad… _

 

_ Suddenly, the fabric was torn away from his face and he snapped his eyes closed, it wasn’t the light that was bothering him, he just didn’t want to see anything, he didn’t want to look at Oliver’s face whilst his evil doppelganger brutally assaulted him. “Open your eyes.” _

_ It wasn’t a taunt, it was a demand. _

_ Barry refused. _

_ He felt the objects slam painfully into him “Open. your. Eyes.” This time it was ground out, Oliver was angry… _

_ Barry held still for a few moments, but then he gave in, and his eyes opened up to face the man above him. _

_ An evil grin spread across the other's face. He looked into his eyes and saw his reflection, he looked like crap, a black eye, a busted nose, bruising along his throat. _

_ He watched the other raise a hand before slamming it into the side of Barry’s head. _

_ ‘Oliver...save me…’ Was the last thought that ran through his mind, before things went fuzzy, then black. _

 

He gasped loudly and jumped up, taking in large gulps of air while he shook, terrified of the images he’d just relived. Once he calmed down he rubbed a hand across his face before heading to the bathroom that was connected to the room. Opening the door, he flicked the light on, wincing when the bright light assaulted his sensitive eyes before he moved to look into the mirror, he had his head low, he wasn’t looking just yet… He had to brace himself. He was scared...but he had to do it, if not for himself then so everyone else would just leave him alone.

 

He slowly slipped off his shirt. Five minutes later with him just standing there, shirtless, his head bowed because he was terrified of what he might see. He tried to lift his head, no luck. He grit his teeth and tried again, but once more he failed. He was beginning to feel frustrated… frustrated and _angry_ Angry because of what happened, angry because now he was broken and everyone was trying to help him while suffocating him at the same time, angry because… because of _everything._

He let out a growl mixed with a low scream before sinking to his knees, then sitting back, his arms limp by his side before coming up to hold his face as tears rushed down his face, broken sobs filled the silent room. He just sat there, continuing to cry, because at this point he felt like he couldn’t do anything else. How in the hell was he suppose to get better if he was so weak, so scared, that he couldn’t even look in the mirror at himself? How...How was he suppose to be _him_ again?


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this is honestly the fastest a chapters been posted in a long time! Enjoy!

Oliver was nervous. No, he was _scared_. He didn’t want to accidentally send Barry into a panic attack just by showing up.

Felicity tried assuring him that he’d be fine, that Barry agreed to this, but Oliver was having a hard time believing her.

It was hard to think that his brother-like figure was tortured by someone who looked exactly like him. He couldn’t even start to think about what his doppleganger did to the younger man.

When they had to start heading to Central City, Oliver took the train with Felicity, rather than taking his bike over there.

The whole ride was spent with Felicity telling him that _You’ll be fine, you have nothing to worry about._

The train ride lasted faster than usual, to Oliver’s dismay. No matter what Felicity said to help him, he would never be ready to see the poor man again.

He would never forget when he caught Barry kneeling in front of him, scared, acting like a robot to whatever he said, almost acting…

Mindless.

Seeing something like that, seeing the brightest light dimmed, just because of some asshole who looked exactly like him…

He didn’t even notice Felicity dragging him up to the front door of the West house. She was about to knock on the door when he grabbed her hand.

“Let’s turn around while we still can,” he pleaded to her.

Felicity took her hand back and said, “We’re going to have to do this eventually, Oliver. We might as well do it now,” before knocking on the door.

\-----

Barry stood up again, head down once again as he got up to try looking in the damn mirror again.

He could do it, he could. He had to before Ma- no, Oliver, yea, Oliver, and Felicity came.

He tried lifting his head, _he could do it_ , and…

No. He couldn’t. He couldn’t do it.

Barry practically ran out of the bathroom in desperation. He ran back to his bedroom, and looked at the pictures of him. Him, before he was this… this mess of a human being.

He yanked the picture off the wall and threw it on the ground as hard as he could, tears pouring out of his eyes as he did the same to the next picture, and the next.

For each picture, he thought about something Master would tell him, something that he did to him.

_Barry woke up with a pain in his leg. He wanted to scream, but his throat still wasn’t healed from when Master decided to light his insides on fire. He looked down at his feet to find his left was practically deflated. He tried moving it, but it wouldn’t budge. He reached over to touch it, to discover that the bones in it were near shattered._

_Barry’s eyes widened as he started freaking out, hyperventilating._

_“I’d stop that right now if you don’t want both feet to end up like that,” Master said._

_“What… did… you.. do?” Barry managed to say, tears coming out of his eyes. Master lifted up a hammer and twirled it around his finger. Barry felt his heart beat faster in panic as he realised what happened._

_What if the bones healed wrong? What if his healing factor was done with his body, and his foot didn’t heal? He’d have to get it amputated for sure._

_If he ever got out, that is. But at this point, he was sure no one was coming for him._

Barry snapped back to reality to find that his floor was covered in shattered picture frames.

He wasn’t out of pictures. No. He needed to break something else. It felt good, like he had control over something.

He looked at the picture frames on the ground.

They were broken - no, they were shattered, just like him. He reached down and moved around the glass, digging up the picture that was buried underneath the rubble.

It wasn’t damaged, not even a small rip on the outside of it. It was just a little wrinkled.

It was then he realised that he was, in a way, like these picture frames. Completely broken, with no hope in being fixed. But, the thing it was holding was completely fine.

With him, it was sort of the opposite. He was broken on the inside, he couldn’t be fixed, yet on the outside he probably didn’t look damaged.

And picture frames, if they break, they could be replaced. They could look as good as new.

Barry put the picture down and picked up a shard of glass. He heard a knocking on the other side of the locked door, but he ignored it, examining the glass. A tear slid down his face as he thought about this newfound metaphor.

Picture frames cost a lot, and they could be really hard to find depending on what type you need. But, they could still be changed, good as new, better, if you take your time to find one. And that’s what mattered. And that gave him hope.

Walking over to the door, he waited a minute until he was sure there was no one on the other side. Then, he opened the door, and slowly walked to the bathroom. He knew this inspiration would run out soon, so he should get this over with.

He opened the bathroom door, and walked in. His head was still hung, staring at the glass. Taking one more breath, he looked up.

Looking at his reflection was… it wasn’t was he expected. He looked exactly the same. His hair was a bit shorter than what he’d like, and he was as pale as a ghost, but the most obvious difference was his eyes.

They looked… they looked more dull than what showed in the pictures.

Weird, how he was using a picture to compare himself from then to now. It was quite sad, actually.

Putting a hand up to the mirror, the tears started to fall again. They fell hard, and they didn’t stop. Realising how different he was now, than he was half a year ago, it was finally hitting him.

Iris came by the doorway to find Barry looking at himself in the mirror. He had a shard of glass in one hand, and the other hand was on the mirror, and his face was completely tear-stained.

Oliver and Felicity just showed up at the door, and Caitlin was getting them settled in while Iris went to get Barry.

Knocking on the doorframe, Iris got Barry’s attention. He snapped his head over to Iris, and she told him Oliver and Felicity were downstairs, but Diggle couldn’t make it.

Barry took a deep breath and looked in the mirror one last time.

 _Here goes nothing_ , he thought to himself. He took a deep breath and walked over to where Iris was. Iris gave him a tight smile, and she led him downstairs.

Barry was scared. He was terrified. He had no idea how he would react.

When he saw Oliver sitting on the couch, everything else was gone. It was just Barry and Oliver.

Felicity, Caitlin, and Iris all looked at each other as Barry was analyzing Oliver. They couldn’t tell if he was going to run away or go closer to the vigilante.

They didn’t expect what happened next, and neither did Barry.

Barry had it in the back of his mind that this Oliver wasn’t… wasn’t Master. He knew that he was safe, that Master couldn’t get to him. But, he also needed to get revenge in some way.

No, he couldn’t do anything extreme, but just the slightest thing would please him.

Next thing he knew, he was in front of Oliver with his fist flying across the older man’s face. Barry’s heart was pounding, filled with adrenaline, and he practically shouted, “ _I’m_ _not_ _your_ _slave_ _anymore_.” 

That took everyone by shock. Not just the punch, but hearing Barry’s voice. It’s been nearly six months since they last heard anything other than a sob come out of his mouth.

Oliver didn’t react to the punch at all. He saw something like this coming, he wasn’t stupid. In fact, he expected for Barry to full-on beat him up, and he would’ve let him. He would take his own life if that meant Barry could be ok.

Instead, Barry looked like he realised what just happened, and who was in front of him, and ran upstairs.

Caitlin started to get up to talk to him, but Oliver stopped her.

“No,” he said. “Let me talk to him, I think with the right words, I can help him,” he insisted.

The girls all looked at each other again as Oliver started making his way upstairs. This was going to end terribly.

 


	20. Chapter 20

_Idiot idiot idiot idiot!_

Did he really just do that? He...He just punched Oliver! What the hell was wrong with him?!

He was sitting in the corner of the room, his back a couple inches away from the wall. He was staring at the shards of glass and wood strewn about the floor.

_Broken_

_ Angry! _

_ Shattered _

_ Healing? _

_ Silent... _

He let out an angry growl and gripped his head. He was so /stupid/! Why did he punch Oliver? Why did he speak?

He was feeling too many emotions at once.

He felt so empty… Ma...Oliver, evil Oliver, took so much from him. He felt angry because he felt trapped, in all sense of the word. He could get better, but it felt like everything was going in super slow motion. He felt like he was drowning, despite his head being the only thing above water. 

He knew this wasn’t an illusion, No one was coming to punish him for speaking, or acting out in anger. He wasn’t trapped, not physically, yet his mind was stuck in the sense that he had no where to go, that he was stuck being a broken shell of what he once was forever and there was nothing he could do about it.

 

He didn’t have much more time to sulk because suddenly, his eyes were assaulted by the light as the door was opened.

Barry looked up to see Oliver standing in the doorway. Barry’s first responce was jumping up and moving back, he didn’t want to touch the wall so he turned a bit, keeping his eyes on Oliver as he moved towards the bed.

He wasn’t scared...well… maybe a little, he _had_  just socked the blonde in the face.

 

Oliver watched Barry’s reaction and couldn’t help the way his heart clenched painfully at the sight of Barry being terrified of him. “I’m not gonna hurt you Barry, I promise.” He spoke softly.

His words did nothing to phase the others barely hidden panic.

“Barry… I promise, It’s _me,_  not him. If you believe me, could you sit down? Please?” He asked softly

Barry stood still, at least for a minute or two, but eventually, he sat down on the edge of the bed. His hands were gripping the comforter, rubbing the cloth between his knuckles.

 

Oliver knew that despite how minuscule the act seemed, it was actually a leap of faith for the two, and so Oliver let out a soft sigh of relief.

“Barry,” He began as he cautiously made his way over to the bed. Barry, surprisingly, hadn’t run away yet.

He took a deep breath before continuing “I know that.. Bad things happened to you because of that… man, but he’s dead. He won’t _ever_ hurt you again. I know thing’s have to be pretty hard for you right now and I know that you must be scared, _angry,_  and you feel trapped. Trust me, I would know. I’ve dealt with those exact feelings, not your situation, and not to the extremes you’re dealing with. But I can help you… if you’re willing to accept?”

Oliver was now standing at the end of the bed, watching Barry with cautious eyes before Barry did another shocking thing.

 

He got up and hugged him.

 

It threw him off, it really did. And dear god was he surpised, but he didn’t want to ruin it, he didn’t want to break Barry’s fragile trust.

 

And so he hugged back, moving to sit on the bed as he held a trembling, sobbing Barry as the other gripped his shirt and refused to let go.

“I’ve got you Barry, you’re safe… I promise.” He murmured.

  
Maybe everything could get better.


	21. Chapter 21

Oliver and Barry sat like that for what felt like hours, Oliver holding Barry, comforting him.

He was glad Barry was finally letting go, letting someone else in. From what Caitlin told him, he wasn’t letting anyone in at _all_. He wouldn’t talk, which is why he was most shock when Barry yelled at him. He didn’t like touch, so the fact that they were still in this position also surprised Oliver.

But he just held on tighter. He held Barry as if he was never going to let go, as if telling him that he was safe.

_That he loved him._

Oliver wasn’t afraid to admit it anymore. He loved Barry. He loved him so much, but he knew that even if Barry loved, no if he even _liked_  Oliver before, he couldn’t now. Even if Barry was starting to realise that it wasn’t Oliver who tortured him, but a doppelganger. He would still get reminded every time he looked at him.

Barry let go, and looked up at Oliver. He wanted to kiss the older man, and he was about to ask if he could, but then… something happened.

It was like a flicker of light. Like, it was there, but it wasn’t.

One second… _he_ was there, grinning evilly, like he was about to come up and stab him, and the next he was gone.

Barry’s eyes widened, as the flicker happened again, and tears came streaming down his face.

But this time, the flicker lasted longer than a flicker. It was like a physical figure.

_He_ walked toward Barry and Oliver, laughing quietly, yet manically, and Oliver seemed to be completely oblivious to it.

Barry shook his head frantically. No, no, he can’t be dead, Oliver said he killed him.

“Barry? Barry, what’s wrong?” Oliver asked. Barry raised a finger and pointed to Master, who was now just behind Oliver.

Oliver looked behind his shoulder, looking Master in the eye, and turned back. He then said four dreadful words.

” _Barry, there’s nothing there._ ”

Barry’s eyes widened as Master started to slowly inch past Oliver.

No, Oliver could not be missing him, he’s _right there_!

Barry let out a sob as Master pulled out a knife, preparing for the pain.

Master didn’t stab him, though. He got as close as he could to Oliver, who was saying _something_ , and pressed the knife up to his chest.

“ _Oliver! Watch out_!” Barry screamed as Master went to plunge the knife into Oliver. Barry’s eyes widened, and, using his speed, he lunged forward and grabbed Oliver, knocking them both off the bed.

Barry looked back at Master, but he… he was… _gone_. Barry let go of Oliver, and curled into himself.

“Barry, he’s not there. The guy that took you is _dead_ ’ He’s not going to hurt you, or me,” Oliver said, moving back over to Barry. Barry just got up and left the room. He wanted to be alone, no one ever let him be alone anymore. He knew he shouldn’t be, not when Master just tried to kill Oliver, but he couldn’t do this anymore. He ran out of the house without a second thought.

Oliver ran downstairs, stopping when he saw nothing but three females staring at him. “Oliver, what did you do?” Iris practically screamed, running up to him. Oliver shook his head.

“We were doing fine, and all of a sudden he saw the guy that tortured him all those months behind me, he said - yes, _said_ \- that he was going to stab me. Then he just… _took off_ ,” Oliver quickly explained.

Caitlin, Iris, and Felicity all looked at each other worriedly. “He could be anywhere now, what if he does something stupid?” Felicity asked.

“If he wanted to kill himself, he would’ve done it by now,” Iris said, looking at her.

“We have to find him fast, he’s not ready to be on his own yet, “ Caitlin said.

Caitlin and Felicity walked up and joined the other two. “Let’s split up, me with Caitlin, and Iris with Oliver,” Felicity said, and the other’s nodded.

“Please come back, Barry,” Iris whispered, nearly inaudible.

\-----

Barry sat outside his old house, with his head between his knees. Why was he so messed up?

First, he didn’t talk, which probably made Iris and Joe pity him, and he _hated_ pity. Then, he freaks out because his best friend bumps into him, not to mention how much he _hated_ going to STAR Labs, because of all the sharp objects there.

Now, he’s seeing master in places that he’s not? Everyone probably thinks he’s insane, or a messed up post traumatic person for them to pity, to treat like glass.

Barry let out a small sob. He missed his old life, the times that he would just go out for a coffee with Iris, or just have a night where he would watch musicals, and get a sudden wave of nostalgia because his mother loved musicals. He missed Captain Singh yelling at him for being late, but not actually doing anything about it because he was the only good CSI there. He missed simple family dinners, but now he could barely eat, because he was afraid of going into a panic attack from the butter knife around Joe and Iris.

He just wanted everything to be normal again. He wanted to be Barry Allen again, the Flash, the nerdy CSI again. Not some PTSD freak who can’t get over himself, who refuses to talk or touch people.

He thought that _maybe_ Oliver saw something different with Barry, because he went through something similar, but Barry just _had_ to freak out and run.

Thinking about it, he figured broken things like him are better off alone.

Loneliness is a blessing, but it was also a curse. When you’re alone, you’re demons tend to try take over your mind, and right now, they were winning over Barry’s. He felt so stupid for having hope.

But yet, he still wouldn’t lose it. He had to fix himself. For Iris, for Oliver.

 


	22. Chapter 22

Oliver _had_  to find Barry before anything bad happened to him. He would never forgive himself if something happened. He felt guilty enough as it was. Had seeing him triggered his psychological break? Oliver hated himself, hated his bastard of a look-alike. The son of a bitch that had caused all of this. He hated it so much. He was pissed off about this entire situation. He loved Barry and there was no chance of the other _ever_ being able to see him the same way. Whenever Barry looked at him it would do nothing but trigger these episodes; all because it /had/ to be _his_ doppelganger that hurt him.

 

_ I’m sorry Barry… I should have never let you get hurt like that... _

-”ver?” Iris’s voice cut through his haze of anger and self pity. “Hm?” He asked, trying to make it seem like he was focused and had been paying attention like he was suppose to.

“Have you seen him yet?” Her worried voice questioned as she looked out the windows then focused back on Oliver. She was worried for her best friend, her brother. He wasn’t ready to be on his own yet. He was still healing, physically he was fine, but he was far from okay mentally. Especially since he was now seeing hallucinations of the man that hurt him. That aspect was the most dangerous by far.

 

Oliver shook his head “No, I’m sorry.  I have no clue where he could be.” He said as they drove through the streets. He kept his sea blue eyes looking out for the tall and lanky form of Barry Allen.

 

Hours passed, three calls between the two search parties as well as asking Cisco to vibe Barry and no luck. It was almost as if he was stuck in the speedforce again.

“Where could he be?” Oliver asked under his breath. He was worried as hell. Barry could be scared and possibly hurt out there on his own. He was terrified of what might happen to the other.

 

“I don’t kn…” Iris trailed off, and Oliver looked over at her, his eyes wide because he was secretly praying to whatever or whoever was out there that she either saw him or knew where he might be.

“His house.... His old house, Barry use to hide out there when he got upset, that or he went to the graveyard.” She said quickly

“We’ll check out the house.” He said, sending a quick text out to Caitlin for her and Felicity to check the graveyard.

_Please be okay…_ He pleaded in his mind as Iris sped down the streets.

 

-

 

Barry had walked into the house, he was currently sitting on the couch, hugging a pillow close to his chest as he reminisced on his memories. He was desperately trying to ignore the darker memories that threatened to take over his mind.

He was slowly drifting off as he recalled the memory of his mom singing to him when he was younger, the familiar, soft voice was lulling him, making him feel warm and safe, something he hadn’t felt in a long time. He slowly closed his eyes, and for a moment, he thought that he might be able to sleep without a problem, but of course, life had to go and prove him wrong.

As he laid there on the couch, he suddenly felt himself shoved forcefully off of the couch and onto the floor. He tried to get up but a pressure on his back prevented that.

 

“Hello / _pet_ …” A familiar voice purred softly. It took Barry a minute to register the familiarity before trying to squirm out from beneath what was most likely the other's foot.

“Awe, what’s wrong? You don’t look happy to see me.” He chuckled darkly.

 

Barry began to shake his head, trembling as panic set in “Nonononono… Y-You’re no-not real! O-Oliver killed yo-agh!” He cried out as the boot was dug into the small of his back and his hair was grabbed and yanked upwards.

 

“He _tried_  to kill me, But I couldn’t just leave my pet all alone could I?” He growled as he released Barry’s hair and moved away. Barry curled into a ball, trying to protect himself from the blows that _had_ to be coming.

And sure enough, he felt the other’s foot came down onto the small of his back and he cried out, choking on his sobs as the evil man continued to stomp down onto his back and kick him in his sides, ribs and chest.

 

He was having trouble breathing and he had no energy to do anything when Evil Oliver pulled his hair, forcing him to look into his cold, cruel eyes.

“You’re still mine, mine to use, mine to beat...” He brought his head closer to the other, his lips ghosting next to Barry’s ears. “Mine to _keep._ ” He whispered, sending cold chills all throughout the other's body.

 

Barry started to cry because he just wanted to die, he would rather die then have to be subjected to the torture ‘Master’ would bring.

Suddenly, Barry was snapped back to reality when he heard Oliver’s voice.

 

“-arry? Hey, come on buddy, come back to me, you’re okay. You’re safe.” He cooed. Barry found himself being rocked gently back and forth. He immediately tried to crawl away, but Oliver was having none of it.

“Barry, hey, Hey! You’re okay, I’m not him, he’s gone. Calm down.” He said, wrapping his arms around Barry’s waist and keeping his arms pinned. “You’re okay…” He whispered. Slowly, Barry began to calm down and ended up just lying there in the others arms.

 

He hadn’t realized Iris was also in the room, she was over by the door which stood open, probably meaning they had just gotten there and probably saw him on the floor, freaking out over the invisible threat. God he felt so pathetic. 

He wanted to say so many things, but...what could he say? He felt so… so _frustrated_! He wasn’t sad at this point, he was so furious that it seemed like every time something right happened, life turned around and added to his list of problems, severe PTSD? Oh! Let’s add hallucinations! Finally talking? Let’s make you look crazy!

He was just..so… so _sick and tired_ of all of it! Sometimes… sometimes he just thought it’d be better if he had died, at least then people would remember him as his old self, not a broken, fragile porcelain doll that sees things that aren’t there.

 

After a few moments of pure silence, Oliver spoke up again. “Barry, look at me.” He said softly, Oliver had given Iris a look to give them a few moments, and she, although unwillingly, bade his request and walked back to the car.

Barry didn’t move, and it wasn’t until Oliver’s gentle hand grabbed his chin and tilted his head so that they made eye contact.

Oliver smiled softly as he looked at Barry, whose eyes were glossy and somewhat confused, and touched his forehead to his, this was all a very risky move. Barry was very clearly not wanting to be touched, or look at Oliver, but Barry needed to see that he wasn’t alone and that he could be safe with Oliver’s face. “You’re okay, I promise.”

 

Barry wanted to run, to push Oliver off and take out his anger on him...but he couldn’t, because now that he could see past his delirium, he knew this was _his_ Oliver…. Not...not Master.

He shivered at the name, it had been so degrading to have to constantly call someone that, to be beaten and dehumanized and called ‘pet’.

It made him sick just thinking about it. It made him angry.

Suddenly, he couldn’t hold back his anger, and he let out an animalistic cry of frustration and sadness as he beat his fists against Oliver’s chest, Oliver just sat there and let him because Barry needed this, he needed to vent, _he_  needed to feel in control. He grunted when he felt something crack inside, but he ignored it, letting Barry continue his outburst until the punches got weaker, and weaker, and then stopped. Looking at Barry, Oliver saw tears streaming down his face, Barry was trying to his him, but he just gave up and collapsed into the other's arms, sobbing as Oliver just continued to rock him back and forth. He kept shushing him as he stroked his head, letting Barry weakly hit him and cry. Because this was about Barry’s comfort, not his.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this is shit, I’m so sorry, it was late and over the span of days and I had no motivation to write, it’s just one of those times

Once Barry was done, which felt like hours, he leaned into where he just beat Oliver and sobbed.

 _Why him?_ Normally, Barry would _never_ feel bad for himself, but his life has been such a living hell, he couldn’t help it anymore. Master was tormenting him again, People were starting to think he was insane, they were pitying him, he couldn’t have that happen.

Reluctantly, he pulled himself off Oliver, and walked out the door without saying a word. Oliver got up, confused, but followed him out nonetheless.

Barry got in the passenger seat of the car and curled up. He couldn’t believe they saw that, they saw him freaking out against a force that wasn’t there.

They probably thought he was more damaged than he let on before. He didn’t want them to think that, but really, he couldn’t help it.

Oliver got into the back seat, looking at Barry, and felt awful. If his doppleganger wasn’t dead already, he would’ve killed him ten times over. Barry didn’t deserve this, he didn’t deserve any of this.

Iris looked at Barry, and, although risky, she put a soft, gentle hand on his shoulder. Luckily, Barry didn’t flinch. He didn’t lean into the hand, but he didn’t flinch, and that’s what mattered.

“Oliver, can you call Felicity and Caitlin?” Iris asked, stopping in front of the house, but not getting out.

Oliver nodded, and took out his phone. Iris then looked at Barry. “Do you want something to eat? We can go pick something up,” she asked softly. Barry looked over at her.

Admittedly, he was very hungry, but he didn’t want to go in public yet. “Do we have to go inside the building?” he asked quietly. Iris shook her head.

“Not if you’re not ok with it,” She said, hiding her excitement of hearing Barry’s voice.

Barry nodded. “Then let’s go,” he decided, as Oliver got off the phone.

“They’re on their way back, do you want me to call them back and tell them we’ll meet them?” Oliver asked. Iris nodded.

“That’s probably for the best,” Iris said softly. She didn’t want to be too loud, it just didn’t feel right.

The ride to Big Belly Burger was silent. No one really knew what to say, and they didn’t want to accidentally trigger Barry by joking around.

Iris pulled in, and looked at Barry. “Is there anything you want?” Iris asked, knowing he was probably more hungry than he realised.

Looking at the restaurant, he decided it wouldn’t hurt to try to go in. “I could maybe go in,” he said, barely audible, but Iris heard him anyway.

“Are you sure?” She asked. What Barry said right there shocked her, but she couldn’t let it show. Barry thought about it for a second, then, hesitantly, nodding.

Oliver looked at the hesitance in Barry’s eyes, and told him, “If you start to feel uncomfortable, just let us know,” he said softly to Barry.

Barry nodded, and, very slowly got out of the car, Oliver following suit.

Iris waited for them to catch up to her, before smiling and starting to walk to the building.

Barry and Oliver were a little bit slower, Barry still unsure he actually wanted to go inside yet. But he had to do this, he had to prove he wasn’t weak anymore, he wasn’t pathetic anymore.

Once they got to the door, Iris and Oliver went in, Barry reluctantly following.

Once he got in, he noticed that no one was staring. _No one was judging him._

Barry took a deep breath. Soon enough, they probably would be.

The trie got in line, and Barry was still frantically looking around the restaurant, his anxiety starting to kick in.

Oliver noticed Barry starting to get nervous, and whispered, “You’re fine, they’re not judging you.”

Well that _totally_ eased Barry’s anxiety. He frantically looked around the building and ran out the door.

Oliver looked at Iris and told her to wait in line while he went to check on Barry.

\-----

Barry was sitting against a tree outside of the restaurant, his head in his knees.

” _Now, I understand I’m still figuring out your tolerances, but please know it will make things easier once I’ve figured this all out,” Master said. Shortly after he discovered Barry’s healing, he’s been testing one thing after another. He’s been doing whatever he thought of to Barry, whether it was for his entertainment or, “For humanity’s sake.”_

_Master pulled out a gag, and put it in Barry’s mouth, as deep as it could go, and tied it around his head. Next, he pulled out something that looked like a choker, but with more of a metallic look._

_“For example,_ pet _, I have to figure out how well your throat holds out on you,” Master said, walking over to him, tying the choker on. Then he pulled something that looked like a leash and attached it to the choker._

_Next thing Barry knew, his oxygen was cut off, and he couldn’t breath. He started gasping for breath, but each time he did, Master would pull tighter. And with the gag refusing him the luxury of taking in air, he knew he wouldn’t last long._

_Barry felt tears fall out of his eyes as he began to black out. He tried gasping a few more times, but soon enough, he felt all form of consciousness leave him._

Barry didn’t know why he was relieving this specific memory, but remembering that feeling, the feeling of not being able to breath, it was starting to feel like that again.

Tears fell down Barry’s face in a rush, and he started taking deeper, faster breaths.

 _Breath_ , he told himself, but he couldn’t.

The feeling of the gag in his mouth, the feel of the choker getting tighter and tighter, it was all coming back to him. It was as if he was back there again.

“ _You’re not there, you’re outside of Big Belly Burger_ ,” he thought to himself.

“ _Yea, and you just made a total fool of yourself. What were you thinking, going in public? Did you think that they were all just going to think you’re normal? Why do you think they were staring?_ ” Another voice in his head said.

“ _They weren’t staring, /no one/ was staring,_ ” his good voice said.

“ _They were, you just didn’t see it. Not to mention the fact that Oliver and Iris were practically radiating pity off of them. You’re just their charity case_ ,” his other voice said.

Barry grabbed his head. “Stop, stop, _stop_ ,” he said to himself, screwing his eye shut.

Barry felt a hand on his back, and he jumped up as fast as he could. He realised what he did, then grabbed his head in embarrassment.

“ _Stupid, Stupid, Stupid_ ,” his inner voice taunted.

“Barry, god, I’m so sorry,” Oliver quickly said. Barry just sat back down. He was so weak, so vulnerable. Why did Oliver and Iris even bother to try to make him better?

Iris came out with the to-go bags, and walked over to the two. Barry shook his head, indicating he wasn’t hungry anymore. He got up, pushing past Oliver and Iris, and walked back to the car.

God, why couldn’t he just be _normal_ again?


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this is a VERY graphic chapter, read at your own safety. Please don't read if you are not okay with non-con or graphic torture.

Barry had been taken home and he went directly to his room. He didn’t eat, despite the fact that his take out food was sitting on the dresser beside him. He was hugging his knees close to his chest as he thought about what had just happened. He had freaked out for no fucking reason. He was never going to get better...why were his friends even trying? He was having hallucinations and flashbacks, he was a PTSD freak. And he couldn’t go to therapy this time. This time he wasn’t a kid that claimed he saw a man in yellow kill his mom. He was a twenty-six year old grown man who just happened to be a meta who had just been kidnapped and tortured by a criminal sadist from a different world. He couldn’t just tell these things to a regular person. They’d think he was insane. He wasn’t ready to talk about what happened yet which meant he was all alone. He hated it. He wanted space, he wanted time to think because all of their worrying and pity made him feel like he was suffocating!  But…. he didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t want to have no one and he felt like he was drowning but he was nowhere near water. His throat constricted as he remembered times when Mas- No!  _ Oliver  _ would chain him up and leave him alone for what felt like hours, and he had lost track of time to the point it felt like days and when he would come back it only lead to more torture…

 

He shivered and shook his head to get rid of the thought. He heard a knock on the door and for a moment he wondered if he should just pretend to be asleep. He waited, wanting to see if maybe whoever it was would just go away. 

 

“Barry?” 

 

It was Oliver… Should he answer? 

 

" _Why? He’s just here to point out how pathetic you are."_ His inner voice spat.

Knock knock...

_ "No, he’s here to help you. He just wants to help you get better." _

Knock knock...

_ "Better? There’s no fixing the broken." _

Knock knock...

“STOP!” He yelled

 

Silence

 

Barry’s eyes snapped open and he found himself gripping his hair and pulling at it. His breathing was erratic but the knocking stopped. Barry looked towards the door and once he had slowed down his breathing enough he opened his mouth to speak. But no sound came out. He coughed to clear his throat before finally forcing sound from his throat. “Y-Yeah?” He asked hoarsely.

 

There was a pause and Barry just figured he left, that was until the door opened slowly and Oliver’s worried gaze peered at him although it was mostly a silhouette of his head due to the light shining in.

 

“Hey…” He said softly. He walked in and shut the door behind him before walking over and sitting on the end of his bed.

 

Barry just looked at him before turning away in shame.

“S-Sorry… I…” He tried to speak, he wanted- no- he  _ needed t _ o apologize because he probably embarrassed them back at Big Belly Burger.

 

“Hey, it’s okay.” He promised, laying a gentle hand on Barry’s leg. Barry flinched violently but slowly relaxed when he forced the fact that Oliver wasn’t hurting him in his head.

Oliver noticed the flinch but didn’t move his head. They weren’t going to make progress by both of them awkwardly taking a step forwards and then taking that same step back.

With his hand still on the others leg, Oliver gave a small smile. “Barry, I know this has to be hard, I don’t know exactly what you went through, but I am here to help you cope. You can always talk to me when you’re ready. I know what it’s like to go through a similar experience. Being taken away, thinking you would never be free or ever see your loved ones again, the pain, the fear, all of it. I may not have been put in your specific situation but I-”

 

“He hurt me…”

 

Barry’s voice was so soft, he nearly missed it. But he heard it.

“Barry?” He asked softly, urging the other to continue, he didn’t want to force Barry to talk about it, but he knew it would help the other to talk about it, to get it out instead of being the sole bearer of that horrific burden.

 

Barry was looking down, his uncut and ruley hair hid his face but his cheeks were uncovered and the moonlight shined and reflected off the wet trails on his cheeks.

“He… He t-tortured me… He...There was so much pain… He… Oh god…” He began to sob harder. It hurt to say this, but he needed to tell / _ someone/  _ before it destroyed him from the inside out.

“When I was first taken… I was just his plaything. A way to get off on my suffering… But… But then he noticed I was healing easily. I didn’t want to reveal too much, so I j-just told him about my healing abilities… the...the torture got worse. He use to carve me. Open me up and prod around. He cut off or squeezed off body parts and watched them reform. He… Oh god that wasn’t even the worse of it. He would drown me… ch-choke me…” He let out another broken sob because talking about it brought back memories and the phantom pain and he found himself curling in on himself because the mere thought of it all _t_ _ errified _  him.

 

Oliver looked at him, his eyes widening as he listened to the other. He knew that it was probably killing Barry to talk about this, but it would kill him if he didn’t. So Oliver sat and listened, offering silent condolences.

Barry peaked up to see Oliver still sitting there and listening to him. He didn’t know whether to be horrified or thankful because he needed to get this out but...would telling him make Oliver think differently about him? What might happen if he told him and Oliver became disgusted of him? Would he tell the others?

Those thoughts nearly caused him to stop breathing… but he didn’t. He couldn’t. He had to get this over with.

“He… When I still believed you guys would come and save me...when I had hope… he was trying so hard to break me. He would physically and verbally abuse me… but still, I told him he was wrong… I said… I said “They’ll come. They’ll save me and you’d lose.” I told him this even though I knew it would result in a harsher punishment. But… one day, he stopped the beatings, stopped the cutting and chains and drowning. Instead… he… he said he had a ‘special’ thing planned for me that day…” He trailed off and had to force his breathing to remain even. 

 

Oliver moved his hand to Barry’s shoulder “You don’t have to do this if-”

 

“No...I...I need this…” He said softly before taking a deep breath before continuing “I was chained to a wall...He… He came in the cell that he had me in…”

 

_  The evil Oliver strode in smoothly, dragging a hand along the entrence and wall as he walked over to where Barry sat, curled against the wall, his limbs tangled in the chains holding him to the wall “Oh pet~” Barry glared at him but made no further movements. He didn’t want to seem scared of him but he was scared to provoke him and his throat was still healing from when he told him to ‘fuck off’. _

_ “Now now, don’t give me that look. I have a… surprise… for you.” He hummed as he walked over to him, his entire demeanor calm and that was a terrifying sight in itself. _

_ He knelt down and placed his hand on Barry’s hair, his fingers trailing through his greasy locks of hair, teasingly delicate. _

_ “W-What d-do-do yo-you wan-want-t?” He stuttered badly. He couldn’t produce a normal sentence since four weeks ago. Oliver had beaten him so severely that he was now practically a ball of fear and stress. He had tried to fight it but it was almost as if he was unconsciously afraid to speak. _

_ The once delicate and gentle fingers roughly grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled causing Barry to yelp and clench his eye shut from the sharp pain. _

_ “Now pet, you know how I feel about talking back-or talking in general. Pets.Stay.Silent.” He hissed, pulling the others hair tighter with each word. Barry only whimpered in responce. Oliver smirked and released his hold on the brown locks. Barry Slumped back and scooted away. _

 

_ “Now, as I said. I have a little..hm...surprise. Strip.” He demanded. Barry looked up in horror. Had… did he really just…? _

_ A hand shot out and pulled his shirt, ripping it along the collar. “I said. Strip.” He said through ground teeth. His eyes having a darker tint to them than usual. _

_ Barry swallowed the lump in his throat and shakily began to remove his clothes. It was difficult wit the chains and he had to tear them to get the cloth off of the chains. Now, he sat there in nothing but his boxers. _

_ “Everything goes.” Oliver’s voice growled angrily. Barry shook his head. He couldn’t do it, it was too humiliating. But he knew that he made a mistake because the next second, he was lying flat on his stomach, Oliver was kneeling on him, his knee placed painfully on the base of Barry’s spine. He felt pain in his hips, like a cut and then he felt liquid slide down his hips before the only source of cover and clothes was torn away. _

_ He whimpered and writhed under the others weight.  _

_ “I told you, everything goes.” He snarled. Barry took deep breaths to try and calm down but it was hard to breath with Oliver on top of him, soon though, the older man got off of him and he watched him place a knife back into it’s side sheath. _

_ Barry moved to where he was sitting with his back against the wall, his arms were wrapped around his knees which were drawn up to his chest. He ignored the burning sting on his hips for now, honestly, that was the least of his worries at this point. _

 

_ Oliver walked back in forth in front of him, staring at him with hidden dark intentions. _

_ Before Barry could even blink, there was a sharp pain across his hands and legs. He yelped and pulled away but the pain didn’t stop. Oliver was standing in front of him, whipping him violently. _

_ “S-Stop!” He begged and yelled, trying to shield himself from the painful thrashes. _

_ “Stop what?” Oliver demanded. _

_ “S-Stop please!” _

_ That appearantly wasn’t it because the whipping stopped but now Oliver was roughly placing a noose around his slim and bruised neck. _

_ Barry’s eyes widened and he began to shake his head and try to pull the rope off but it was soon pulled taught and he found himself struggling for breath. “S-s….” He gasped, he was held up for a good bit, his vision darkened and he felt tired, saliva was dripping from the corner of his lips before the rope slackened and he hacked and coughed, pulling the rope away from his throat. _

_ “Call me master.” He spoke huskily, his eyes still holding the dark intentions. _

_ “N-No!” Barry growled back, the pain was nothing, He could fight it, but if he gave into what this sick man wanted than he would be giving up his will which wasn’t happening. _

_ Once again, the rope was pulled tightly around his neck, cutting off the air. Barry tried to calm his breathing, he could handle this, just a little longer and the real Oliver would save him… _

_ Suddenly, he felt something touching his exposed member. He let out a strangled yelp before once again struggling for more lost breath. _

_ Oliver began to stroke him, first going slow, then faster and faster and just before Barry could release himself, Oliver held a tight grip on his staff, just below the head, refusing release to Barry. “Call me master.” He demanded once again. _

 

_ Barry shook his head, but it was weak, he was close to passing out again but the rope was released, although the grip on his dick remained. He felt him slip something over the tip and it replaced his hand but served the same purpose. To stop him from finding that comfortable release because the pressure was becoming painful. _

_ “S-st...stop…. Please…” He begged, moaning and whimpering as he thumbed the slit. Oliver leaned closer and began to suck greedily on the others neck, biting harshly and licking at the escaped blood. _

_ Barry whimpered, his body shaking from the mix of pleasure and abuse. _

_ Oliver leaned his head towards Barry’s ears, biting at them before whispering “Call me master…” He whispered huskily. _

_ Barry tried to shake his head again, he felt Oliver climb on top of him.  _

_ Barry’s eyes widened in horror and he ignored the throbbing in his cuts and the uncomfortable pressure around his dick. His body screamed release but at the same time he feared what Oliver was going to do. _

_ “One last chance pet...call me master.” He said as he positioned himself between Barry’s struggling legs.  He hadn’t even realized that Oliver had removed his clothes. _

_ “N-No, Pl-ple-p-please-se d-don-’t…” He begged as his breathing began to pick up and he was on the verge of a panic attack. _

_ “Do as I say pet and I won’t.” He purred, knowing that he was on the verge of surrender. _

_ “P-Please…” _

_ He felt the other nudge his entrance warningly and Barry just….broke. _

_ “P-Please...ma-mast-ter… d-don..don’t…Mast-ster…” _

_ Barry was sobbing pitifully at this point and he felt the other rise off of him and the rope was pulled just tight enough to make it uncomfortable. _

_ Barry curled into a ball and sobbed pitifully, the ring was still on and he was still naked but he didn’t care. _

_ “Good pet.” Oliver purred before dressing himself and leaving the cold damp cell, leaving Barry broken and crying on the dirty ground. _

 

“He...He left me that way for three days. He didn’t feed me, he didn’t give me water, he left me naked and cold for three days straight….” He said softly, at this point, he was crying silently but the tears left red streaks on his pale cheeks. He was shaking and he was staring at the wall as if it were the most terrifying and interesting thing in the world.

 

Oliver looked at him and he cautiously pulled Barry into a hug and he ignored the flinch. Even though Barry didn’t hug back, he kept the hug before pulling back and holding Barry’s face gently in his hands, using his thumbs to wipe away his tears “Barry...He’s dead and he will  _ never  _ hurt you again. I promise I’ll keep you safe. Me, Felicity, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco, Joe, Diggle, all of us will be there to make sure you never get hurt like this again.”

 

There was a moment of silence and blank stares, but then Barry blinked and looked up at him tearily and spoke.

  
“Then why did you let this happen?”`

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all! Sorry the chapter took so long! I have work and school and it's just been hella hectic. I hope you all liked it!


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long for this chapter, here you go ^.^

After Barry confessed to Oliver, they just sat in silence, Barry staring at the floor, Oliver staring at the wall. Barry eventually started to go to sleep, so Oliver picked him up, and tucked him into his bed.

He then left Barry alone in his room, and went downstairs, with his face hardened. He was trying to hold back his tears, with how awful that man treated Barry, amongst everything else.

Oliver couldn’t forget how broken Barry looked when he finally opened up to him. He was proud of Barry, though; he was making progress faster than anyone else probably. That may seem like an exaggeration, but if it were Oliver, he wouldn’t even leave his room.

But even with Barry’s progress, it must’ve been like hell to relieve those memories to Oliver. After all, he had been fucking /raped, that had to take a hell of a lot of courage to talk about.

Still, what he said after, it hurt him. “ _Then why did you let it happen?_ ” He couldn’t get the broken way Barry said that out of his mind. He knew Barry didn’t blame him, or at least he didn’t _think_ Barry blamed him…

It would make sense if he did though. He was kidnapped, tortured, _raped_ , by a man who shared his face. Oliver wouldn’t be surprised if that was all Barry saw every time he looked at him. If Oliver was kidnapped by an evil Barry, he would never be able to see the good side of Barry again. Only the parts that tortured him.

Oliver sat himself down on the couch and put his head in his hands. If this is what hearing about what happened to Barry was like, he couldn’t imagine _being_ Barry in that moment. He wanted to murder this… this guy that tortured him ten times over. Surely, he couldn’t have been human. No human could torture someone like that.

Oliver felt a pair of arms wrap around him, and he looked up to see Iris sitting next to him. “He’ll get better, just give him time,” she said, not looking at Oliver. Oliver sighed.

“I just don’t know how much longer I can do this, Iris. It’s like, I break a little more each time I see how broken he is,” he said, looking down at his lap. He hated seeing Barry like this, it was almost like he was _never_ going to get better. Of course, he would never be the same again, that was inevitable, but even barely close to where he was before before all this would be better than now.

Iris sighed. “All we can do now is just… support him, Oliver. Look at where he is now. When we found him, he wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t even let us touch him. And now, he’s doing all of those. That’s progress. I don’t know if it’ll ever get better than that, but it’s better than nothing,” she assured him, and Oliver finally looked at her. “Thanks, Iris,” he said, with a small smile.

\-----

Barry stayed where he was at, even when Oliver left the room. He knew he shouldn’t have blamed Oliver, but it was _his_ doppelganger who kidnapped, and tortured him. Most of the time he was there, he counted on Oliver, his Oliver, to save him, never came. When he finally came, Barry was already long gone.

It hurt when Oliver didn’t see him right away, but even Barry knew it was for the best. No matter how mentally prepared he could’ve been, he knew he would’ve launched into a panic attack the second he saw the face of the man that tortured him.

Now, it seemed like he finally mentally separated Oliver from… from _him_ , something he never thought would happen. He didn’t know if he still had his feelings for Oliver, but he still felt like he could tell Oliver everything. He somehow knew that Oliver wouldn’t tell anyone what he told him, it was this… this _trust_ he hadn’t felt in a long time. He didn’t even know he was capable of trusting people anymore.

 _I don’t know why you think you can trust him. He_ was _the guy that tortured him all those months._

Barry shook his head, putting his hands to the side of it. “No, no, it wasn’t him,” he mumbled.

_What, you really believe it was some doppelganger that just happened to look like Oliver?_

Barry shook his head. “It wasn’t Oliver, Oliver stopped killing me, he’s the one that got me out,” he mumbled again, a bit louder, as if trying to convince himself of that. He knew Oliver got him out, but why didn’t he do it sooner?

Barry moved to lay down, and curled up into a fetal position. He didn’t fall asleep, though. He was afraid that if he did, he’d have a nightmare, and then probably be on the receiving end of Iris and Oliver’s pity again.

Barry sighed. Why couldn’t he get any better? He was trying, he really was. He wanted to be happy again, not constantly paranoid. Hell, he couldn’t even go in _public_ without panicking.

It’s not like he wanted to be like this. If he did, he would’ve kept being closed off, not allowing himself to get better. He just couldn’t force everything to be ok all at once, and he realised that now. He just didn’t want anymore pity.

One major downside to all of this though, was that Master all but forced away his ability to make kids. With all the drugs put into his system, Master decided to be “nice,” and inform him that his reproductive systems wouldn’t work anymore.

  
_”W-why do you do this to me? Is this some sort of bet? Which one of your friends can take away someone’s humanity the worst?” Barry asked, voice seeming raspy. Master chuckled._

_“Funny,” he said, before kicking him in a wound that was nearly healed, but not quite. “You know how I feel about you talking. Keep it up,_ pet _, and I may have to do something with that little mouth of yours,” he threatened._

_Barry stayed quiet after that._

_“Now, today, I’m going to take a break on the physical beating, so you may find this better than usual. I do, because it’s still going to be entertaining… for me, that is,” Master said, as he mixed a bunch of chemicals Barry couldn’t quite identify together. He then picked up the finished product, and walked over to Barry._

_“After this, you’re reproductive systems are most likely going to stop working, and your muscles should slightly deteriorate. But with that super healing of yours, that shouldn’t be a problem, right? Once it’s all out, they’ll regenerate, right?” He laughed, as he put the concoction up to Barry’s lips. “Drink,” he demanded._

_Barry sealed his lips closed, and shook his head. He didn’t want this, he wanted to be able to make a family, he wanted to have three little children driving him and his husband or wife insane one day._

_Master put a little more pressure on his lips. “I said,_ drink _, or else there_ will _be a punishment,” he growled, and Barry whimpered, causing the drink to flow into his mouth. Barry blinked back tears, as Master forced the rest of the drink into his mouth. It burned his throat, it tasted awful, and he could feel it working already. Maybe if he let go, the drink would kill him, and he’d finally be free._

Barry didn’t realise he fell asleep until he woke up from the memory of the pain. He felt tears on his face, but it didn’t seem like there was anyone who noticed. That was good. That meant he was reacting better to his nightmares. That, or they didn’t actually care.

Barry wiped his tears away with his sleeve, and got up. He wanted to see if anyone _was_ home. He opened his door, and slowly walked out. He moved slowly through the hall, finding no one was upstairs. Well, Joe was, but he was passed out. He finally had to go back to work, and it’s been stressing him out.

Barry was filled with a wave of nostalgia at the thought of work. Even if he got better, he didn’t know if he’d be able to go back to work. He had to analyze dead bodys, rape victims, and other things on a daily basis, things that were sure to give him a panic attack.

Barry then moved downstairs, and found Oliver passed out on the couch. He took up the whole couch, so Barry couldn’t quite sit next to him. He did, however, kneel next to the couch and rested his head between one of Oliver’s dangling arm and his chest, in a way that was barely comfortable. If Oliver was awake, this would’ve been embarrassing, but he wasn’t. Barry fell asleep, and for the first time in a while, it was a dreamless sleep.

Unfortunately for Barry, though, his actions woke Oliver up. Oliver peeked down at Barry, not moving, and smiled, before closing his eyes and falling back into his slumber. Maybe he would get better soon, and things would be somewhat… _normal_ again.

 


	26. FINAL CHAPTER: Happy endings

A few days passed and Barry noticeably became more comfortable around Oliver, even a bit dependent on the man. He was still wary of the others but, he was making progress. He actually ate full plates without throwing them up, even his panic attacks happened less. He even willingly took a walk outside. It was going great. Yeah they were still dealing with Barry’s PTSD but Oliver was seeming to be the only one able to help him. Barry had had a nightmare the previous night when Oliver had been out getting food and Joe had tried to shake him from it only to be flung out the door and into the dresser in the room across the hallway. Barry had just shook and panicked until Oliver returned and he flung himself against the other and just shook in his arms until he fell back asleep.

Now, Barry and Oliver were sitting in the living room. Both sitting on the couch as  _ “Singin’ in the rain.” _ played on the T.V.

Oliver sat with one hand in the popcorn bowl and the other thrown over the back of the couch. Barry was sitting on the other side of the couch, curled up in a comfortable little ball as he watched the screen with a tilted head. It had been so long since he’d watched this movie. It brought a wave of nostalgia because it reminded him of simpler times when all he had to worry about were bullies.

He looked up a little and turned his head to Oliver who seemed surprisingly engrossed in the movie.

He felt a little cold and he uncurled from his ball, getting on his hands and knees on the couch before crawling closer to Oliver. He pause for a moment, sitting back on his legs when Oliver turned to him, raising his brow in question to if he needed something. Barry just looked for a moment, as if checking to make sure it was safe before crawling an inch more towards him. He then sat and leaned up against Oliver, using the other's body heat to warm him.

He couldn’t see it. But Oliver smiled, grinning a little before wrapping a careful arm around him.

 

The others weren’t home, Joe was at work, Iris was helping out at STAR labs and Wally was substituting the flash whilst Barry recovered.

 

The two sat in silence and stared at the movie and it seemed like it would stay that way until Oliver spoke.

“Bar?” He asked softly, getting the speedsters attention.

He said nothing but stared up at him to let him know he had his attention.

“Do… Do you blame me for what happened?” He asked softly, he didn’t show it, but he was scared of the answer. He didn’t want to hurt Barry, he hated to ruin the peaceful mood but the others words constantly echoed in his head  _ “Then why did you let it happen?”  _

Oliver might not ever admit it, but those seven words nearly broke him. Oliver was a mountain with a will of steel and Barry had nearly crumpled him in less than three seconds.

 

Barry’s eyes drooped a little and he turned away, Oliver was scared that he was actually pondering the idea that Oliver did this to him. But then, Barry turned and faced him with those big puppy dog eyes and he  _ smiled _ .

“I… For a little while, I did,” He began, Oliver’s heart drooped a little at that but Barry continued. “I… I was waiting for you to save me… and… and when I still was me, before I had become broken… You hadn’t come… for a while I blamed you, the lines between you and… and  _ him _ became blurred but...but then you saved me and… No… No, I don’t blame you.” He said softly.

Oliver let out a pure sigh of relief. Barry didn’t blame him. Yet… there was still guilt. He had let Barry’s torture last past the point of being utterly mentally and physically destroyed. He had let that happen, sure he was trying the entire time but there were things he could have done. Maybe if he had followed Barry when he knew he was going to earth jump, Barry would have been spared from all of this, If he had looked harder they could have found him sooner. He may not have been the man to torture and imprison Barry, but he had been the cause of his hurt all the same.

“-llie?” Barry asked, cutting him out of his thoughts.

“Huh? What?” He asked, hoping he hadn’t missed something important.

“I…” Barry looked nervous. Had Oliver done or said something? Was Barry having another panic attack?

“What is it Bar?” He asked softly.

Barry looked up at him before back at his hands which were nervously fiddling together in his lap. “I have something I want- … Something I need to tell you…” He mumbled looking away.

Oliver was worried by this point “What is it? Are you alright? You don’t have to tell-”

“Oliver, I like you…” Barry said bluntly

Okay, not expecting that.

“What do you mean?” He asked, He knew Barry liked him, they were best friends. Oliver liked Barry too, just in a stronger, more sentiment way.

“I mean… I… I like-like you...like…. L-Love...you…” He mumbled the last part but Oliver heard it and his face went blank for a moment.

 

Barry froze. Oh dear God what had he just done?! WHY? Why had he just said that?!

_ It needed to be said, He feels the same way. _

 

_ How could he love something as broken as him? He can’t even have kids. He’s useless. Not even a good sex toy seeing as he spread his legs open for- _

 

He had to tune them out, he was trying, really hard. But it wasn’t helping that Oliver was just staring blankly at him. 

He had told him for a reason, it wasn’t just out of the blue. He was getting better! He was trying and Oliver seemed so happy and proud and he just… his feelings had grown even stronger. Yeah a man that was him from another earth brutaly tortured him but that wasn’t  _ his _ Oliver. This Oliver was kind to him, would never hurt him (He was intentionally going to exempt the time Oliver shot him with arrows.)

He… Even someone as broken as Barry deserved love too right? He at least had to try, I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

 

_ He could say no, call you gay, leave because he may be against homo’s, shall I continue on the list? _

 

Barry’s face paled and he just stared pleadingly at Oliver for none of that to be true.

 

Finally, Oliver regained his posture and he looked at Barry’s terrified form.

_ Does he think I’ll say no?  _

His gaze softened and he ever so gently, tilted Barry’s chin so their eyes connected and he placed a firm but gentle and loving kiss on the others lips. 

It took Barry completely by surprise, but, he soon melted into the kiss. He couldn’t believe it. Oliver… Oliver liked him too!

 

It nearly made him forget. Forget that all the bad stuff happened to him. Forget about being terrified to be near new people and his new found fear to trust. Nearly, it was still there in the back of his mind, sitting there threateningly, ready to pounce on him after his brief moment of happiness.

 

Soon, they broke the kiss and Barry just sat there, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He was trying to say… something, but he couldn’t find the words.

 

Oliver smiled softly “Barry, I…. I’ve liked you too… for a while, actually, but after what happened I…. I just thought that you would never return my feelings simply because of the face I share. I....” He trailed off.  He was just… so overwhelmed. Barry liked him too! Which… which means he wasn’t scared of him! 

Just the thought of Barry mentally seperating him from that… that damned bastard, just overjoyed him. 

 

But this also brought on something even better… Barry was healing. Barry was able to tell him that, and he was able to be touched without flinching and he wasn’t stuttering as bad. It had been a long, long road to rewcovery but Barry had been so strong, so amazing that he pushed through his troubles much faster than even the strongest of minds could. Barry still hadn’t told  him everything that happened, but with what he was told, those months that Barry spent captive were hell and Barry was the one to push through that.

 

Barry smiled softly, his face was soft and almost timid in a way as he leaned his head against Oliver’s shoulder. He curled his arms up to Oliver’s chest and his hands gripped softly at his shirt.  He was just…. He wasn’t scared, for once in the months he had been back.  _ He wasn’t scared _ and to him, that was the greatest leap of progress that he had taken in these months of being home.

 

Barry was healing, and even though e may never be the same again, he would be happy again, because he would be with Oliver…  _ His _ Oliver.

  
  


[Was gonna end it here but here is a little after bit for this.]

 

Oliver was sitting in Barry’s room, eating with him. Barry had started to panic in the dining room because he felt like there were too many people (Really it was just Joe, Iris, Oliver, himself and Wally had stopped by to see how he was doing.) But Oliver calmed him down and took him into his room, bringing his food.

At the moment, Oliver and Barry were playing with their food. They took turns tossing sesame chicken into each others mouth while also trying not to fling rice everywhere. It was Oliver's turn and Barry picked up a piece of chicken, it was a fairly small piece but he was going to throw it anyways cause he was running out of chicken. 

“You ready?” He asked, smiling as he got ready to toss the piece of food.

Oliver smirked and leaned his head back slightly and opened his mouth, Barry smiled and tossed the meat. Unfortunately, the meat did not go into his mouth but instead stuck right in his left nostril.

There was a moment of silence, a sneeze… and then….. A laugh.

It startled Oliver after he wiped away the spit and sauce from hsi sneeze, but there Barry was. Leaning back, holding his stomach

 

And laughing.

 

That the first time in almost a year that he had heard that familiar, joyful and amazing sound that was Barry’s laugh.

 

He smiled and chuckled and after a moment, he too was full out laughing.

  
Maybe...just maybe, Barry could return to his normal self, because if anyone could do it, it was Barry Allen. The fastest and strongest man alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter, thank you all for following our story, it meant so much to us and even though it took us forever, im so glad you all have enjoyed our story, and I definitely have enjoyed writing with the other other as well as hearing all of your comments and suggestions and everything. I will be posting more stories once i get more time, I will be off for a couple weeks cause I have to get my wisdome teeth removed and get ready for musical auditions at my school
> 
> Again, many thanks and I will see you all in the next story ^^

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's kinda short...
> 
> Comment and Kudos please :)


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